1st Annual Great Hudson Valley Fox Hunt

Scheduled for the Saturday directly after Veteran's Day in the United States is the Annual Great Hudson Valley Fox Hunt.

As our inaugural year, the date falls on Saturday November 11th 2023. The goal of this event is to raise awareness of a fun activity involving amateur radio and a wide area game of "hide and seek".  Participation will be from 12:30 to 3:30 PM Eastern US time.

Multiple hidden "fox" transmitters will be hidden in clearly defined search areas called grid squares. Each transmitter will be broadcasting a message which identifies itself with an amateur radio callsign along with an additional message which will attract attention to anyone who receives it.  

With the right equipment, anyone can determine its location direction and hopefully find its actual location. A specific frequency within the 2m amateur band will be provided the morning of the event. The specific 3x4 mile grid boundaries will also be shared before the event on the UNDR Group Facebook Page as well as on this blog.

More than one fox will be hidden during the event, but all will be using the same frequency from different locations.  The hunters goal is to use radio direction finding equipment to find one of more of the foxes. Some participants may wish to find one or more foxes during the event.

Everyone is welcome to participate!

There are many existing people within the local amateur radio who have different skill sets related to finding the source of transmissions, so this is not only good training for them but also a great way to find newcomers who might find this a fun activity. 

The skills learned during an event like this can be helpful to those in different careers such as wildlife scientists who keep track of certain animal populations or migration paths or first responders who may use related technology to find lost hikers or stolen property.  Sometimes, an accidental transmission from even an airplane, boat or someone's radio transmitter are the sources of unintentional interference to others, so having radio direction finding skills is very useful.

A detailed 2023 event flyer can be found below with specifics on where to meet others should you be new to radio direction finding, also known as "fox hunting". 

​A basic overview of some technologies and things to research before the event are captured in a presentation courtesy of Steve Bossert K2GOG. If you currently do have an amateur radio license, you can find locals involved in this event by looking on the WA2MJM 146.805 MHz and WB2ERS 444.700 MHz repeaters.

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