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P. O. Box 9852 | ||
"Since 1957 Giving 50 Years of Service to the Community" |
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Team Kluwe Hunt Results by Bob Ledford, WA4IDI The team of Rick Kluwe, WB4QAC and Vicky Stark, was held on Saturday evening,18 April 2008. Everything went along great until the hunt started. The turn out was very good, with the following participants: Team Kalashian: Bruce KB4GW and Ann KA4MLQ and the new team of Bruce and Ann Williamson (their Doppler System developed a serious antenna problem) so they chose to ride shot gun. This team found the bunny hole first. Team W2RAC: Richard Cook, W2RAC and daughter Emily, Fred Villers, K8FV and Glenn, WB4WHN. (Second) Team Brock: Darrell N4GOA and Hugh W4AND (Fourth) Team Schwartz: Bill WS1C, Pat, Robert, Paul AB4PM and John, K4TUG.(Third) Team Ledford: Bob WA4IDI and Anne (DNF) Team ?: Jim, AJ4GM along with Lee KJ4AGN and Laurie KJ4AQG Walker (who are new additions to bunny hunting). (DNF) 04.21.2008
A Super Hunt with Team W2RAC as the "Bunny" This months bunny hunt was an excellent hunt put on by the ever capable team of Richard Cook, Fred Villers and Glenn, WB4HWN. They even went so far as to employ the services of a very competent hostess in "Miss Emily Cook." The following teams of avid fox hunters participated in the hunt:
The starting point (SP) was a mass of confusion as everyone was busy doing all those things that one thinks needs to be done. Such as blowing smoke up your competitors nose, bragging, fretting and finding out that your antenna really is broken not just hard of hearing. At the pre-hunt bunny test transmission Art, KA4WDK, discovered his DF antenna was stone deaf broke. So Bob, WA4IDI, offered the load of his backup quad antenna. While they were getting that out and setup the bunny announced the hunt is on. Everyone drove off leaving them at the SP to finish up. Bob got out of the SP second from last place. The Team Williams crew were giving their new Ramsey Doppler kit its first run since being completed just hours and minutes prior to the hunt. Bruce says that his Ann took them to New Smyrna Beach because she had the display upside down. But no one believes him. They got their directions to the Dairy Queen via cell phone since they are not "hams yet!" Team Byrnes stopped to visit every park between the SP and Ormond Beach suffering from short transmission times and long off the air times inconjunction with not being able to find places to pull off the road and jump out of the vehicle, running to the back, jerking open the gate, getting the antenna out, grabbing the HT and finally getting a bearing before the bunny went off the air. To slow and they would have to stand there and wait for the next transmission then stuff it all back in the car and head off in the last direction. Team Kalashian suffered from a Doppler systems failing part and were getting errors in the read out consistently. Team Kluwe was just seconds behind Team Ledford who was seconds behind Team Brock. Team Ledford found on the last hunt that thier system was lacking in adequate waterproofing and was suffering an antenna failure. Having found and fixing the antenna problem and improving the waterproofing Bob also found the antenna pattern to be out of square while doing this weeks installation on the roof top so much of Saturday mornings install time was spent squaring the template up. Bob resisted Anne’s constant "what if" suggestions to stop and look here or there and followed the bouncing ball (LED) to the rabbits hole. We did do one thing that was totally out of character, we stopped where a guy was working on his boat and asked how to get to a point on the other side of a body of water that was in the way and with his directions drove to the rabbits hole. The bunny team are to be commended on a very interesting hunt that had a significant difficulty factor to make it challenging but not so difficult that it resulted in massive doses of frustration to the hunters. 03.17.2008
Hunt Report 1/19/2008 by Art Byrnes, KA4WDK The Bunny was well hidden in plain site, just 5.5 miles as the crow flies, from the starting point. These are the coordinates according to Google Earth; 29° 7'2.54"N 81° 3'38.40"W Because of all the twisting and turning roads the driving trail to the bunny was about 8.5 miles If you check you will see that Google Earth ( http://earth.google.com/ ) does not show the roads that have built in that area, but the Bunny Team was at the end of a long paved road, that you could only get to from one direction, even though it seemed reachable from other roads. It was quite a briar patch of twisty turning roads, cul de sacs, and dead ends. Murphy attacked the bunny's signal and made it hard to hear, the hunters were directed to head south from the starting place at Volusia Mall at 7:00 pm Possibly the thunderstorm with rain and lots of lightening added to the confusion. The Bunny Team was Arthur Byrnes KA4WDK, Vikki Byrnes KB4KVP, AJ Byrnes, and guest Bruce Williams. This was Bruce's first hide, although he had hunted before with Bruce and Ann. The first hunt team to find them was Rick WB4QAC and Vicky. They arrived at 7:33 pm The second place team was Paul AB4PM, El-Presidente John K4TUG, Bill WS1C, His son Robert, and Grandson Mathew. With all the passengers in the van, the Bunny Team thought that maybe they had been found by a bunch of folks trying to sneak across the border :-) Third place was Richard W2RAC, and Fred K8FV, missing second by just a few minutes. Bob WA4IDI, and Anne came within a mile of the briar patch, but had to drop out because of equipment problems caused by the heavy rains. (Yes, I fixed several problems during the day on Sat. but the one that did not work out was the waterproofing job. Saran Wrap does not hold up well in the wind and rain over the cab of the truck. When I stored it last night it got stored in a vertical position and was going drip, drip, drip, drip. Oh well we got close and the equipment was not lying to us until it got deep enough in the collector box to float the circuit board.) Bob wa4idi Bruce KB4GW and Ann KA4MLQ became entangled in the briar patch and got to take home the skunk, since it seems they may have come as close as 2,000 feet from the bunny. After the hunt everyone gathered at Marble Slab Creamery, had ice cream and shared war stories about the hunt, and hunting in general. Webmasters note - Art and Vicky did a good hunt location and the weather fully cooperated on making it in to a very difficult hunt with the rain, darkness, slick looking streets and unfamiliar location and things being built in areas that we knew to be farm land now turned residential area. 2008 is off to a good start with a good turn out for hunt number 1. 01.09.2008
Merry Christmas from N4GOA by Darrel Brock, The Dastardly Bunny! The concept was to have a straightforward drive-up hunt, the only difficulty with that concept was that there was no straight way to drive from the starting point at the mall to Pineland Trail in Ormond Beach - northwest of the Ormond airport, just south of US1. Pineland Trail is the road that runs immediately east of I-95 from US1 south to Airport Road, coming out at the Ormond Green subdivision, and the stretch of road where the bunny was hiding has got to be one of the darkest roads on this side of Volusia County. Drawing a direct line from the Volusia Mall to the bunny hole takes you somewhat along Clyde Morris Blvd., which ends at Granada Blvd. in Ormond Beach with the Trails North 40 subdivision straight ahead and the Hidden Hills subdivision just to the west. From there the direct driving route ends, but if you continue along that map line you cross the Tomoka River and find yourself in the Ormond Airport Industrial Park, the Ormond Airport, and the Ormond Beach Soccer Complex on the north side. Team Schwartz, WS1C and company - including Paul AB4PM and John K4TUG - apparently are now very familiar with the soccer complex, having spent most of the evening wandering around there, thinking the bunny was at the flagpole, no wait, across that soccer field, no wait, maybe he's over there, etc. Final result for Team Schwartz was to utter the magic word of "Uncle" at about 8:20pm. Team Ledford, WA4IDI, called the bunny on the cell phone at about 7:50pm to be the first to cry "Uncle", having driven around in circles in downtown Ormond Beach and never getting out of the Granada/US1 area. At least they had the honor of being the first to arrive at the Dairy Queen for some treats! Team Villers, consisting of Fred K8FV and Glenn WB4WHN, by about 8:25pm were convinced that they were right on top of the bunny as they had made it to Airport Road and had a full scale signal on the HT......sorry, still a few miles away. The bunny called it quits at that point and broke down the gear, pulling into the Dairy Queen directly behind this last wayward team. For the benefit of those three DNF teams, the bunny consisted of a horizontally polarized yagi at 19 feet above the hard deck, on top of an dark green extension pole that was lashed to a fence post near a off-the-side-of-the-road billboard. The bunny radio was under a dark green tarp at the base of the pole, so as you drove by you wouldn't even seen it. That yagi was pointed directly at the Volusia Mall, hence pointed directly at the soccer complex, the airport, etc etc etc. Just a simple off the side of the road hunt - right! So what were the success stories of the evening? In first place was Team Kalashian, consisting of Bruce X2 and Anne X2 (KB4GW and KA4MLQ, along with another couple with the same names). They worked their way west from the soccer fields on Harmony Road, hitting Pineland Trail to the south of the bunny and then heading north.....with a finish time of 1 hour and 1 minutes. In second place was Team Kluwe WB4QAC, consisting of himself, finishing in 1 hour and 8 minutes. Rick, after spending some time checking out the parking lot at Wal-Mart and the new apartment complex just to the north, finally came north on Tymber Creek Road, and went pretty directly on track from there, taking Airport Road to Pineland Trail and to the bunny den - although he was a little disappointed when he walked up to the bunny's ride and discovered I was just keeping surveillance up on my bunny box somewhat to the south. Following the hunt, during some consumption of Dairy Queen's favorite treats, we had an informal discussion of maybe putting an end to horizontal polarization of the bunny's signals - it's been done a fair amount lately and is causing some problems with the doppler units and a reduced signal. An alternative would be to require the bunny to announce prior to the hunt if he intends to use a horizontal signal, much like the bunny can change the general boundaries, etc., as long as the word is put out in advance. Looks like Art, KA4WDK, has agreed to be the January bunny so maybe all of the active hunters could kick this idea around and reach an agreement prior to that hunt. So tonight's hunt was both straightforward and frustrating, a longer drive than we've been doing lately, and although not a success for everyone I'm sure it was a learning experience for all of us, including the bunny. May your holidays be filled with love and joy............... Merry Christmas to all! Darrell, N4GOA Posted 12.16.2007
The Perfect Hunt that Wasn’t by Bob and Anne Ledford "Twas" the week before Thanksgiving and the weather was supposed to be cold in Wonderland. It was not windy and it was not cold for the way we were dressed cuz’ the Weatherman lied again. We, Anne and I, spent the spent the major portion of one full afternoon scouting out the most dastardly places we could think of within the city limits of Ormond Beach and decided on one particular spot. Then during a "what if and suppose we did this" session the perfect definite spot there was picked out. Saturday morning, hunt day, arrived and it was time for Anne to go shopping and Bob went to the garage and started preparing and checking out the equipment. The "W2RAC bunny box" was in perfect condition just as Richard said it would be. The J-pole antenna was rigged to the "bunny box" in line with a power and SWR meter to make sure everything was within limits. A on the air test was made and everything was a go. It was pack and go time. The trek into the bunny hole took longer then expected due to over dressing and no break in the fence line because some idiot locked the gate that was open so we had to truck it all up to the entrance of the parking lot then back down the street to the bunny hole which was open to the general public. Setup commenced and the subsequent test revealed a very high SWR. What was amiss? Finally, a suitable answer came out. It did not like the combination of the lamp post or the safety railing. So we decided to put it in the potted palm trees at the park. Good idea but neither one of us could make it hook to one of the palm branch stubs. So Bob climbed in the pot and up one of the trees and hooked it on then wedged the PVC pipe between the other two to get the horizontal layout of the J-pole antenna that he wanted. Finally the hunt was on, Bob and Anne sitting on a park bench under the antique street light on the East bank of the Halifax River, in Ormond Beach just under the Granada bridge in the park. The # 1 fox team of N4GOA and W4AND arrived in 28 minutes followed by # 2 team of W2RAC, K8FV and WB4WHN in 29 minutes, followed by # 3 team of WS1C, AB4PM and K4TUG in 30 minutes, followed by # 4 team of KB4GW and KA4MLQ and # 5 a did not find the bunny team of WB4QAC and Vicki. WB4QAC was severely handicapped by the fact that he was in Vicki’s car and not his usual setup van which decided to blow a radiator hose Saturday PM before the hunt, thereby not having anything but a quickly improvised "antenna in a beef stew can" setup to try to hunt with. Give WB4QAC a resounding "A" for effort! 11.18.2007
The Sign on the Door said "No Animals Allowed" by Bob Ledford, WA4IDI Is it going to rain since it has been so hot all day long? Surely not! We were all hoping it would not as it was the eve of the monthly bunny hunting expedition. The bunnies this month were to be "Team Schwartz consisting of Bill, WS1C, John, K4TUG and Paul AB4PM. It turned out that Paul was away and Robert, Bill’s son subbed for Paul. Being a Saturday night some of us got our weekly bath’s early and some waited I guess. You never know where the dastardly bunny is going to run you off to. The month was no exception. The pre-start or "can you hear my transmitted signal" phase got off to a Murphy’s Law start. Bill was not to be found on the K4BV Repeater then he was but on the direct side not the repeat side. Then he showed up on the hunt frequency looking for WA4IDI. But I did not have one radio that would transmit on that frequency which sent me into a tail spin trying to get one reprogrammed in a hurry. With the new families of microprocessor radios and menu’s that just don’t happen easily. But being hams we finally got a radio on line and the hunt was on. The signal was loud and clear but as we started to drive off it got really weak. Was he underneath the parking lot? Darrell Brock, N4GOA, and Hugh Royal, K4AND, took the road closest to the mall around the mall. Rick, WB4QAC, and Vicky, Bruce, KB4GW, and Ann, KA4MLQ followed by Richard, W2RAC and Fred, K8FV and us took the high road or the one the furtherest from the mall buidling. After making two laps is was pretty certain that the rabbit was using either low power or had everything in a steel box because the signal was here but not there and it was only inches between here and there if you know what I mean? Sitting in the mall parking lot I dug out my handheld antenna and had a full scale reading on my ICOM IC-90 so I turned on the electronic attenuator and had no signal so it was definitely low power and coming from inside the mall. But the sign on the door clearly read "No Pets Allowed" so what do you do. I was standing next to the tail gate of my truck when Richard and Fred drove up totally frustrated. He has to be in the mall was the general consciences. At that moment the Mall Security truck drove up and asked "do you need any help?" Anne said, "Yes, help us find the bunny" which lead into a discussion with her and she said, "Oh you mean those guys in the mall by the coffee shop with a radio on the table?" Yea, and we thanked her and locked the truck down and headed inside to find the bunny. It turns out that most everyone found the bunny at almost the same time. Vicky found him first without any radio detection gear. Then Rick got there, followed by the deadly duo of Darrell and Hugh, followed by Ann and Bruce, then Richard and Fred leaving Anne and I to bring up the tail. But by being last we also proved the point again, we found the dastardly rabbits lair. Every one then sojourned to the ice shop for refreshments and after hunt BS! 09.18.2007
The Rabbit Sort of Won by Bob Ledford, WA4IDI, DNF T’was a dastardly "pee poor night for a rabbit hunt" Saturday 21 July 2007. The sky was full of rain, the air was full of lightning bolts and the only stupid people out were Bill Schwartz, WS1C (ex WA4JCP), Paul Milward, AB4PM and John Locicero, K4TUG (ex KD5IBY) in one vehicle, Fred Villers, K8FV and Richard Cook, W2RAC in the "Super Sucker Antenna Mobile, Ricky Kluwe, WB4QAC all by his lonesome self, followed by Bob, WA4IDI and Anne Ledford, in Mr. Rumbles. Of course, there were the two fearsome rabbits, Hugh Royal, W4AND and Darrell Brock, N4GOA. Being in the distinguished class of DNF along with Mr Kluwe for company is not so bad. Team Ledford was in the ball park but no other team had Anne as a driver! Her patience factor is always running at least 110 to minus 10th power. I did find out that my antenna collector box is also a very excellent rain cistern. It was full of water this morning and still has water running out of it. The true highlight of the whole evening was the stop at ‘The Cow Lick" Ice Cream Shoppe in Ormond Beach, for that the bunny and his helper get a "real atta boy!" Bill WS1C (ex WA4JCP) wrote his view point and all I am doing is spell checking and reformatting it. "Wabbits Beware! You are dead meat! Aaaah wabbit stew!" John Locicero, K4TUG (ex KD5IBY) wrote: Did we have fun, you ask? Why Bob, you know we did! It was a pleasure as always being part of any thing you and your sweet wife are involved in! Secondly, Paul and I had an absolute blast doing the hunt. Much different than trying to take a directional reading off shore with an old AM radio directional finder. and it was a kick to watch Paul become a little kid again, he got so excited he was running in the rain on the dock and jumping up and down when he found out we were the first. What a perfect way to end a wonderful day. You probably already know it was my first bunny hunt. I see why John Muncey loved it so much. Fred Villers K8FV wrote: What can I say about scientific experiments. A failure is as good as a success. The new "Super Sucker" antenna just sucked us down the primrose path. We spent 30 minutes wandering down toward Edgewater with diminishing signal strength when we went back to the old quarter wave array. Then with little ado found the bunny's stomping ground. Some foot work with the Yagi and attenuator led Richard to the over water lair. The humbled and rain soaked team vowed to do better next time. The "wascally wabbits deserve print space too: Actually, we were surprised at how well the hidey hole worked. I'm sure the wet weather really contributed to that, but we'll take credit for it anyways. Our intent wasn't to skunk anyone and we thought it would be easier than it was. What we figured was that everyone would get to Beach street easily, as the antenna was pointed directly at the mall, but then as they crossed the bridge the reflections from the new condos would wipe out a direct signal (as you dropped back down to ground level and the condos by us blocked a direct signal) and until you sorted it out you'd go back and forth over the bridges a couple of times. There you have it a total report on the wettest bunny hunt in the past three years. Sincerely Mr. & Mrs. DNF Again. But at least we started 07.21.2007
Updated on: 22 April 2008 |
"Motto for 2008 "Let the good times roll!" |
