Featured Story

The 2002 CHC Foxhunt

by Rick Sharpe

At the 2002 CHC meet, I once again participated in the telemetry foxhunt organized by Marshall Radio. These hunts are a great way to learn about telemetry since the competitive aspect provides the needed level of stress and urgency to make mistakes, yet there's not a bird at risk. As in the past, I teamed up with a partner, who in this case, was new to the game.

After the three hidden transmitters were dialed in at the starting point, there was a countdown and everyone was off and scrambling. In the past, as many as six transmitters have been hidden and a solid game plan was necessary. In this case, we headed out without such a plan and ended up driving past the first one and wasting too much time on it. This happened to be a dog-tracking collar, which was carefully placed and buried on the edge of an embankment of a dry ditch. Expecting some type of deception of the true position of the signal emanating from the collar (which is a very common occurrence in this game), I wasted time trying to out-think its placement and overlooked the obvious, which was right under foot, and I actually packed down its true position. While my partner kept digging, the subsequent winning team arrived with a Marshall receiver and was able to immediately locate the exact spot and with dog-like digging, unburied it. Discouraged by the other team’s statement that they’d already found the other two transmitters, Terry Roundy motivated us to continue the hunt anyway.

The second transmitter had been placed in the pocket of an orange-picking crew foreman. Sometime later, he had placed it in a pipe on the ground at the start of a row of trees. In the meantime, a trailer load of ladders had been parked next to it. When we arrived, our signal was bouncing around the ladders and time was wasted searching amongst them. When we asked Terry if the signal was going to fade when the truck was pulled away, he smiled and said, “We’ll just have to see.” Luckily, the ladders were moved, leaving the transmitter easier to find.

The third and final transmitter was found to be beeping south, down the interstate. Wanting to maximize our time, we made an ‘interesting’ exit from the highway. At last, I felt I was on familiar ground; a transmitter going up and down at a moving oil-pumping derrick.They'd done this placement before. My partner and I found this one a bit easier.

I learned several things from this year’s foxhunt:

1) When looking for a lost bird, always start with a good, solid game plan, factoring in choices of elevation and triangulating points.

2) When looking for a transmitter that’s fallen off a bird, always keep the antennae attached to the receiver. This gives the best directionality, better than hand-holding and using the receiver by itself.

3) When helping someone look for a lost bird (or a placed transmitter), make sure you ask the right questions to efficiently use an unfamiliar receiver. Minutes of guesswork can be critical.

4) Don’t let discouragement slow your efforts or motivation. You can never second-guess or predict what’s going to happen. Other teams may have made errors in writing the exact numbers down, or just be trying to intimidate you..

These foxhunts are a great opportunity to practice and learn tracking skills. You think you really know how to use your equipment, and then you get fooled.

I’d encourage everyone, who wants to improve their telemetry skills in the field, to participate. In my own particular case, this year’s foxhunt was a prelude to actually looking for my lost bird with my foxhunt partner, and having an easier time and a successful outcome.

Thanks Marshall, for putting forth the effort to both attend our Meet and to arrange the Foxhunts each year.

- Rick Sharpe

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