Organising an ARDF Event

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Amateur Radio Orienteering

www.myardfsport.com

Radio Sport, Penang

Organising an ARDF Hunt?

Last Update October 11th, 2007

Planning - Fox master of the hunt

When planning for a coming ARDF hunt, the fox master should

consider the following things.

Weather - Is the weather forecast around the period of the

game date sufficiently predictable? Do not want to face

with a wash out due to thunderstorms.

Any long public holidays may be of advantage but may also

work the other way

where their family events or holiday plans takes priority.

Check with your close and reliable group of hunters

whether the date selected will be suitable and that they

will definitely turn up in support of the hunt.

Always plan for your close group of hunters 1st, then whenthe others join in,

well, the more the merrier!

Site Survey

A public park with undulating surroundings and

ample car park would be ideal for a walking hunt.Walk the route slowly and note the time taken to

cover the whole area which should ideally bebetween 1.5 to 2.5 hours and approximately

covering 3 to 6 Km. ( Dont think the hunters have

the energy to last more that t ime period ).

Look out for suitable places to hide the fox units. Put

yourself in the shoes of the hunters and try toforecast their likely movements and then outwit and

confuse them by selecting the most unlikely place

they would look for. It may be in a quite exposed

location, yet not expected by the hunters. Learn theeffects of bounced signals, to throw the scent away

from the hunters.

... Define the boundaries

( and the foxes - keep within the boundaries

- No jumping over or crawling under the fence! )

Some parks may be surrounded by a circular ringroad or pathway, whereby you can specify that the

hunting is limited all within the circular ring road or

pathway and another 100 meters from the outer

perimeter of the road/pathway.

Sometimes you may need to provide a map of the

place to the hunters, and a quick way is to take a

snapshot of the guide map of the place often found

at the entrance of the park.Alternative is to make use of Google Earth

topographic picture to create your own map andmark out the boundaries as well as the Start/End

point.

Notification and Publicity

Sufficient notification of the coming hunt should be given so that the participants can prepare

and clear their other appointments. Typically, 2 weeks notice should be sufficient. Use theinternet, emails and local nets as tools to invi te your fellow hams to the event. Entice them

with the past ARDF events if any. If you have sponsors for prizes, do let that be known.

Try to take as many pictures of the event, as this can be used to make a scrapbook on the

hunt and used to attract more participants to the future hunts.

Equipment Preparation - In this area, it breaks up to two categories, the fox versus the hunters

1. for the fox beacons.

There are many ways of making a fox beacon, from the most simplest method to the more sophisticatedelectronic fox controller units.

Simplest method Get the chatty fox marshals to do a round robbin group conversation with each

other, lasting approximately 1 minute per transmission on a simplex frequency. The marshals must

stay put at their locations.

anising an ARDF Event http://myardfsport.com/Hunt_Prep.htm

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Electronic fox controller uni ts These are normally consist of a programmable IC chip

and a bunch of other electronic components which will key the transmitter ON(similar like a external hand microphone) for a set duration, and insert an audio morse identifier.

Many of these circuits are available on the internet.

Recommended that the batteries to work thetransmitters be sourced from sealed lead acid/gel

cells and the whole equipment be placed in a

water-proof container. In my case I used therecycled cartridge containers painted in bright

orange. Even the monkeys cannot carry them away.

Antenna for the transmitter are normally a verticallyplaced quarter-wave wire antenna, but some may

opt for a duckie antenna or extend out to the ARDFstandard turnstile type.

A diagonally separated white and red flag is to be

placed in a vertical location, not exceeding 5 metersfrom each hidden beacon and must be able to be

fully viewed from at least one angle.

Paw marks A method of marking the arrival of the hunters at

the different beacon sites, may consist of a simple

stamping tool, puncher or coloured staplers. This tool

must be attached to the flag and not the beacon box.The aim is for the hunters to locate the flag, mark

their score cards and quickly disperse from thelocation, thus avoiding other hunters from noticing

the actual location of the flag.

Transmission power

Normally set to the minimum output power, sufficient to be received at the entrance of the game area orthe Starting Point of the hunt. A typical power rating may be from as low as 20 mW (nominal 500 mW)

until 1 watt. Modulation mode can either be in AM or FM for hunts on the VHF/UHF band. Once the

beacon frequency, power output and location has been set, it should remain as it is, throughout theduration of the hunt.

2. For the hunters.

Very often the new hunters do not know what

equipment to use and how to hunt. It would be goodif a primer course or workshop be held a week before

the actual hunt. So in th is way, another workshopevent is created to keep the local ham community

occupied.

Once the new hunters have new hunting antennas,

they will be very eager to participate in the cominghunt, to try out their newly homebrewed ARDF

antennas - a pride of their own handiwork.

A field clinic or demonstration on how to hunt using

their newly developed tools would be advisable.

Through this trial, the new participants will have a

good chance to understand the performance andcalibrate their new tools.

Scoring.

Judging is based on the shortest time taken to locate all or most of the foxes within the specified time.

Note that all the fox beacons will Start and End at the allocated time. The hunters may be flagged off


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individually or as a group of 4 with at t ime spacing of every 5 minutes.

F & B for participants

Get some helpers who will stay back at the

Start/End point to prepare some refreshments

typically I would buy a crate of isotonic drinks and

cool them in an ice tub. Dry biscuits and bananas willbe a good addition.

If the helpers are gamed to boil hot water and set upa mini coffeeshop, then the 3 in 1 packets of coffee,

milo and tea will make a good welcoming drinkbefore the hunt. Somebody recommended that the

hunters gather early at the starting point and have a

simple packed breakfast before the hunt.

After the hunt, everybody can adjourn to have lunch/dinner we have tried buffet lunch at one of the

hotels where everybody pays for themselves and have a chance to exchange stories of the huntingexperiences.

Do not forget to issue out 500 mls bottled water to the participants before sending them out on the hunt.They will definitely need plenty of water. If there are young children joining the fun, do have some prizes

like some chocolate bars, potato chips, etc to give out to every one present.

Prizes and SponsorsWould be great if there are sponsors for the hunt and prizes thrown in.

Items like Tee-shirts, caps etc makes attractive door gifts, whilst a other prizes will attract more

participants. Who knows, somebody may want to donate a rig as a grand prize!

Normally, prizes are given as per the top results, but it can also based on who is the 1st hunter to reachthe individual beacons and retrieve the prize tag from the flag. With that prize tag, the hunter can then

claim the reward at the Start/End point. In this case, all the hunters are flagged off at the same time.Alternative, a handicapped method may be used whereby, the least experienced hunters are flagged off

1st and a delay of 5 minutes interval between the different levels of experienced hunters.

ChargesUnless you are loaded and wanting to play father Xmas, a nominal charge is to be levy ed on all hunters

only ( recommended amount Rm 10 ) to off-fray all the miscellaneous expenses incurred like batteries

for the fox beacons, food & beverages and future development of the ARDF hobby

PostmortemGather information from the hunters about their experiences after the hunt and request some of them to

make a simple write up of the way they hunted down the beacons, plus the obstacles they came aboutduring the hunt.

Were the foxes cunning enough to make them go the wrong way?

Collect all the photos taken of the hunt. Make a summary report and send to all participants as well as

others who missed the event.


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Documents

Organising an ARDF Event