back to 2023.12.03 Ames Foxhunt

7. event feedback for the Ames group:




Clint (K0GR) reached out to me for feedback on their hunt a few days after the event. Here's a copy of the
feedback I submitted:

The "first to find gets to hide" brings back memories of "cat and mouse" on the CB decades ago! It also serves
as a reward for being the first to find, although we would usually start letting others hide that hadn't gotten
an opportunity recently, just to keep everyone involved. (that, and not everyone that was good at hunting liked
hiding) I haven't floated the idea of someone else doing the hiding here, although we had a hide awhile ago
when the hunt-master from Oelwein came up and did the hiding so I could participate in the hunt. Other than
that I've been the only one doing the hiding, so I enjoyed the opportunity to go on the hunt with you.

Honestly I don't think I'd be a good choice for hiding in Ames anyway. That really requires good knowledge of
the arena to do a well-planned hide, and I'm totally lost in Ames. Hunting is easier, as you're just "following
the signal" and it really doesn't matter all that much if you're lost. Though as I found out, having to deal
with busy roads with infrequent off-ramps was a bit of a problem, but that's just one more angle the fox can
use to stay hidden longer. I did a pretty dismal job of triangulating and found myself with several redundant
bearings while looking for fox-1, but that was entirely my fault and cost me a lot of time. And as it was, I
just didn't have time to figure out where I was on the map and what direction I was facing, and had to try to
keep track of it in my head.

Having the foxes difficult to receive at the starting point was the only thing that I saw that might need
addressing. Although looking at how close we were to the foxes, I think it was more a matter of terrain than
anything else. fox-1 was more in the clear, but fox-2 was just on the other side of the hill there by the yard
waste drop-off. It was good planning to have fox-1 placed so that the hunters could pick up fox-2 more easily
when they switched to it. I decided to "play casual" for this one though and didn't bother to bring my high
gain antenna setup. I've had to use that on a few fox-hunts in the past to get an initial bearing. I personally
think the 30 and 60 second TX times were a bit generous, but that's probably a good choice for mixed-experience
groups.

This was the first hunt I've been on in quite a long time where the fox wasn't close to a road and required
some hoofing it to get to. NOT saying this is a bad thing, it adds a nice challenge to the hide and I enjoyed
it. Some of the most "evil" hides I can remember involved the transmitter in the middle of an area that required
a very long drive to circumnavigate, and a great deal of walking in the woods (and fording a small stream...)
to get to. It's a great way to dial up the difficulty, and to punish hunters that didn't bring a map to keep
track of bearings.

When we played cat and mouse, one rule we adopted is the mouse had to give the cats a "direction NOT to go".
This prevented a cat from heading off in completely the wrong direction, which would otherwise guarantee them
somewhere around dead-last place. But then again directional antennas were banned, so it was easy to start out
in the wrong direction at the start. So it may not really be a "problem", but more just part of the challenge.
One thing I'm currently working on here is improved antennas. The little stubbies on my fox boxes have pretty
poor range. Combine that with low transmit power and often very low elevation, and that can make them very hard
to pick up, even at ranges as short as a mile away.

The meeting location and announcements before the hunt started were good. It was a nice central point with
good parking and low noise. Might need to move to a larger area if you get more participants though. There
were several people that showed up without much in the way of hunting gear, and they had to find someone to
ride with. I might have missed it, but I didn't see any coordinated attempt to pair up players for that. I've
observed it works better if everyone has a Shotgun to ride with them. It reduces the driver's workload
significantly if someone else can be managing the timer and watching/working the radio. Or preparing the beam
and be ready to hop out and get a bearing as soon as the vehicle can come to a stop. (handy if the fox is already
in a TX cycle and you've only got a few seconds to jump out and get a bearing)

At our last hunt in Waterloo I brought along several printed sheets listing the fox frequencies and timing, as
well as having a map of the park. I printed them out last-minute more as an afterthought, but everyone wanted
one so I was glad I had them to pass out. I'm going to make that a part of my regular game plan. I should
probably also add the local repeater frequency on there, as well as simplex. I suspect someone said we'd be
using the repeater for communication during the hunt, but I wasn't paying very close to the prep chat at the time.

We all ended up meeting for a chat at the location of fox-2 after the event, which worked well for a short event.
If this was going to be a longer event, it might pair up well with a "lets meet at the local diner xyz after the
hunt", to chat and share our experiences and stories from the event. That would also work better for hunts on
a Saturday, where more people have time to hang around after the event.

I saw a few of the players showed up with what looked like untested (as in, not "battle-tested") equipment. Your
club might benefit from doing a "workshop" of sorts at your meeting (instead of a presentation) where members
can bring their gear, get suggesting for things like how to make it more sturdy, help with constructing tape
beams, and general review of getting bearings and use of triangulation etc. Those SMA connectors right on the
circuit board look convenient, but can be really fragile. I've seen several get damaged on hunts, and they
really would work better in a box. (SMA connectors aren't designed for repeated connect/disconnect cycles either,
I've had to repair my fox boxes due to that) I personally have been using 3rd Planet Solar's attenuators, that
are better suited for box mounting: https://kc9on.com/product/fox-hunt-offset-attenuator/ But that may just
not be user-friendly enough for those less experienced with soldering and enclosure construction?

I'd have enjoyed a longer event, especially with driving in from Waterloo. (more "bang for the buck" on my gas,
$25 round-trip) That could be managed with more foxes or more challenging hides, though I think your challenge
level was appropriate, so maybe more foxes if you can. That being said, two hides per event is still worth it
for me to make the trip.


Looking forward to your next hunt!


- Nathan




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