There are many different kinds of transmitter hunting. My favorite is ARDF (Amateur Radio Direction Finding) and is what I’ve been involved with since 1995. Some people may have heard it referred to as Radio Orienteering, and that is probably a better description.
In talking to many people around the US, one thing that keeps coming up is how to get new people involved. Objections include a lack of equipment, training, and where to find transmitter hunts around the country. I’m going to address these issues and a lot more in future posts.
Additionally, I plan on getting other experts to write posts about their areas of expertise, and their ideas of how we can further promote transmitter hunting.
The MicroHunt transmitter, WB2HOL Tape Measure Beam kits, and the K0OV Offset Attenuator kits will also be brought over to this site. The documentation for these kits will be made available for download in a PDF format along with videos showing how to build the kits.
While I was serving as an International Referee at the 2010 World ARDF Championships in Croatia, the first Blind ARDF Championships also took place there. The US had one competitor, Dennis Schwendtner, WB6OBB, from California who took forth out of seven competitors. Some videos were taken of the event and will be posted for others to see.
If there is enough interest, I plan on starting a transmitter hunting forum. The first categories that come to mind are Mobile Transmitter Hunting, ARDF (Amateur Radio Direction Finding), Equipment, and a Classified section for radio direction finding equipment.
Something a couple of us have been working on for LAOC (Los Angeles Orienteering Club) is an event registration system. I installed such a system on a test page for LAOC to see if it would be suitable. It wasn’t as there were a number of needed features missing. These included being able to print a PDF of the filled in waiver and the inability to have threads of questions, i.e. do you have an estick. If yes, then enter. If no, then a rental estick is needed and auto-assign a dummy number for tracking.
So much to do with so little time!
Right now, comments are closed and will remain that way a day or so until I get some spam control measures in place. Once they are open, I will be looking forward to comments and suggestions on how this site can develop.
Marvin, KE6HTS