� Dave and John, a Story of Determination Early days We first became interested in Direction Finding around 13 years ago when we were looking for a new club activity to get ourselves out of the shack. At that time we were members of the Long Eaton Amateur Radio Club, and we decided to organise a local foxhunt season as it seemed like it could be good fun. I guess we couldn't have realised what we were letting ourselves in for, or just how competitive we would eventually become. We hunted separately in those days, and whilst good friends, we were keen rivals on the foxhunt field. At first we didn't have a clue, we had very simple equipment and would just 'point and go' with no idea of strategy, or comprehension of how the surrounding terrain affected the signals. Usually coming last or very low in the rankings we were independently determined to improve our hunting skills, and so set to, building better aerials and getting as much practice as possible. There were long discussions over the following months and we began to realise that we were very much on the same wavelength when it came to ARDF. The beginnings of a team Of course there wasn't much commercial equipment to be had in those days, so it was down to our own ingenuity to improvise and build equipment from scratch. The first big leap forward was to try to develop a Doppler Direction Finding system. John had seen part of an article in an American magazine and was keen to try to build something similar. These were the days before the Internet, and finding the source of the article and the missing information proved impossible. Undeterred John persevered and developed the missing circuitry to successfully build the first Doppler foxhunting system in the area. Trouble at t'mill As we improved, the fortunes of the local radio club declined and soon the foxhunts were running with as little as four teams, one of whom had to be fox. Around this time we became aware of another group of avid transmitter hunters - the Amateur Radio Club of Nottingham, and with our newly developed Doppler system we tried to join in their hunts. First time out, we won the hunt in atrocious weather conditions, which didn't endear us to the ARCON hunters at all.. The most amazing side to this episode was that water had crept into the antenna switching box causing the system to fail. We actually Df'ed the fox with an HB9CV and an FT290, until we were within 300 yards of the fox when the Doppler suddenly sprang into life. Of course we didn't admit this had happened as we now felt we had a psychological advantage. The fox was hiding in a pub car park with an aerial attached to a tea tray behind the car, and was very surprised to see our rain drenched faces at the window. However the Nottingham hunters were suspicious of us with what looked like an upturned 'coffee table' on the roof of our car and invoked one of their hunting rules, 'no commercial hunting equipment allowed'. We were excluded from the hunt. Never say die Firmly established as a team, we didn't want to let this problem upset our plans to join in the fun. We decided to start from the road outside the club and attempted to beat the ARCON lads at their own game. This situation couldn't continue of course and once the full facts were known about the Doppler being home made, the ban was relaxed and we were allowed enter the hallowed grounds of the club to compete on equal terms. We soon found it was 'out of the frying pan and into the fire' as the hunters in the Nottingham club were in another league. Some of the hunters could drive to the fox in less time than we could, even if we had been shown where it was from the start. Our beginners luck had run out! Serious commitment Having come this far the only thing to do was to meet this problem head-on and really up the commitment. Every Monday evening we would meet up to discuss tactics and test out new strategies. Making adjustments to our hunting equipment and then testing it out, fully documenting the changes and results. With these improvements we steadily achieved a higher and higher placing until after a nail biting finish to the season, we clinched the 1996 championship. A new Millennium We have continued to just keep ahead, but have not been able to rest on our laurels for one second. Fierce competition, forced us to embark on a complete re-design of our hunting system. Abandoning the Doppler hunter, a more outrageous contraption appeared on the roof of John's car. "It's the continuous development of our system that keeps us so keen" (John), "we have learned such a lot. Winning the hunts is great, but squeezing an extra ounce of performance out of our system is just as big a buzz" But even with all our hi-tech equipment we are still sometimes 'shown the way' by hunters with much simpler set-ups. Dave has now taken over as foxhunt coordinator for the Nottingham hunters, and is enjoying putting something back into the hobby. "My advice to newcomers is always be positive" ( Dave) "You get out of a hobby what you put in and there is no reason why others can't become top hunters". copyright © silent design associates. 2001. all rights reserved.