Hi all,
I find not knowing the Fox's frequency more fun! You just have to be
systematic about it. You approach it the same way a good CW Dxer would do
it. You put your best filters in, put the headphones on, and start at 7.030
and very slowly tune toward 7.050. Try to listen to every station no matter
how weak. You may be able to detect a signal at the noise level of your
receiver. Make a mental note of each signal. Note if there are hounds
piling up in a certain area. If so check a kHz below them. Can't quite
make him out yet? Then make a note of the frequency. He will get either
louder or weaker so you've got a 50% chance of getting him if you are
patient. It may take you ten or fifteen minutes to scan the 20 kHz. Then
start all over at 7.030. You have to learn discipline and how to hear! It
takes time. The part of the fun of catching a fox is the hunt! Don't send
your call if you can't copy less than 90% of what the fox is sending. Be
Patient. In five minutes or maybe in 1 hour he'll appear in you sights
(filter) and thats when you pull the trigger (send your call). Make sure
you are zero beat with him. You will find that if you do it right you only
need one shot (send your call) to bag him.
The biggest thing to learn is split operation. Have the A vfo (receive)on
the Fox and the B vfo (transmit)on the hounds. When the hound is replying
find his exact frequency. Is the Fox moving around his listening frequency
with a pattern? Decide what frequency he will listen to next, put the B vfo
on it and listen to the Fox on the A vfo. When he stops, send your call
once. I got two Foxes last night be sending my call once for each. I
waited until conditions were right and I knew how the Fox was thinking.
When you can predict his next listening frequency, you have him beat. And
conditions were bad last night down here too.
I heard some of the more experienced guys last night just sitting on a
frequency and hoping the Fox would hear his call, which was sent many times.
This is a waste of spectrum and batteries!
So you can know the Fox's frequency and become an appliance operator, or you
can do some high class operating and bag a Fox with minimum energy expended,
and learn something at the same time. And you don't need to be good at CW
(I am the worst). Its actually easier this way when you are being
systematic.
Operating at 5 Watts is one thing but operating at 5 Watts continuously for
a long time hoping someone will hear you is more wasteful than using 100
Watts. Try measuring your feats by the amount of energy expended
(Watt-seconds), instead of just the power output of your transmitter. When
you are in a tent in the wilderness and need to make an emergency contact,
every Joule counts! Learn to be efficeint, and you will become a much
better Dxer, QRPer and Fox hunter.
72 and a half,
Steve, W2MY/5
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