Good morning Dan.

Fox Hunts are a GAME.? So I try to not take it too seriously.? I make it, or I don’t.? When the hunt is over, no one dies, no one loses limbs….. no one loses any $$$$.

I don't know why you had hounds calling you simplex within minutes of the start.? I located both FOXES calling within the first minute.? Jim was to my north-east with a clear and strong signal.? You were to my northwest and weaker.? I figured your signal would build some because you had just gone into night while Jim had been in darkness a couple of hours already, so I called Jim first.? It took me about 7-minutes to get into Jim's log.? I checked the Fritz-Map to see if I got logged correctly.? With Jim’s QSO verified I slipped down to your frequency.

When I came back to your frequency, at first I thought you had moved.? There were a few hounds calling right on the frequency where I had first heard you spread out ± a few hundred Hz. ?I decided that you mush have shifted down 1-kHz while I was away working Jim.? So I checked about 1-kHz low.? No FOX.? I came back up where you had started out, and I thought I picked you out replying to a hound.? Watching the waterfall, I figured out that you were working split but there were a few calling you on your TX frequency.

I can't figure this one out, because one would think that NO HOUND would call the fox in the blind, no hound would transmit without at least hearing the fox, and no hound would deliberately call on top of the FOX.? The only thing I can imagine is that one hound didn't hear you say UP and decided that you were already simplex.? So that hound started calling on simplex, and others joined in.? I believe I picked out at least 3 call signs.? I did hear you send UP a few times - once the hounds calling you on simplex died down.?

For me, listening and watching the waterfall display are key to success.? I have to say that while I liked some of the features of the Yaesu FTdx5000MP, for the FOX HUNTS the Icom IC-7610 has really upped my game.? The IC-7610 has two completely separate receivers.? The Fox Hunts are always centered on one frequency ± 10-kHz.? So I set one receiver at -5 kHz and the other receiver at +5 kHz from that center.? Then I set the waterfall display to ± 5-kHz on each receiver.? So essentially I have two waterfall displays spanning the entire window where the FOX may be transmitting.



Maybe I am giving away one of my SECRETS here..... but it sure helps to find the FOX quickly.? If a hound is using a radio with a good waterfall display, if one watched the waterfall, one can see the FOX calling as a single pulsating spike on the waterfall, like on the far right of the right display.? One can also see a pack of HOUNDS calling as several pulsating spikes spread out to the right of the FOX spike, like the far right of the left display.

Once I identify what I think is the FOX spike, I set the VFO to center that spike on the waterfall display.? Then I set the waterfall display to ±2.5-kHz, and when the FOX ceases calling, about + 1-kHz to + 2-kHz (to the right) a number of pulsating spikes will appear on the display - some of the HOUNDS calling the FOX.? If one watches the waterfall display carefully, one can even pick out which HOUND the FOX is replying to and set your TX frequency near that.

Another key point….. watching where the HOUND spike appears as the FOX calls a hound will let you soon pick out if the FOX is alternating calling high and low, working slowly up or down, or just randomly picking out calls.? Knowing the FOX pattern helps to let me put my call in the place I feel the fox will likely go next.

But the whole key to all of this is LISTENING (watching).? As I mentioned in an earlier post, if I can’t get in the log before the FOX goes simplex, I usually just walk away when the fox does go simplex.? There will be stations calling perfectly zero-beat to the fox, stations calling while the fox is trying to reply to someone, it makes it difficult to figure out who the fox replied to.? And it just isn’t that important to me.

I could tell you were struggling to make contacts even when you picked out parts of my call.? So I doubled up on everything, and that worked.? Thank you for being a FOX sir.

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Vy73 ?– ?Mike ?– ?KD5KC – WRFF851 – ?El Paso – Texas ?– ?DM61rt. ?

SOTA W5T-Texas Association Manager.

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The canyons are calling, colorful and deep. ?But I have promises to keep.

And miles to go still in my Jeep...? ?And miles to go still in my Jeep...

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ADVENTURE: ?The respectful pursuit of trouble.? ?

An EXIT is really an ENTRANCE to someplace new. ?

It isn’t an ADVENTURE until something goes wrong!

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