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Where is the bunny at?

The pre-hunt food court group this month, front to rear, left hand side, Bob Ledford, WA4IDI, Bruce Kalashian, KB4GW,Ann Kalashian, KB4MLK, Laura Walker, KJ4AQG, Lee Walker, KJ4AGH. Right hand side, front to rear, "the head belongs to Art Byrnes, KA4WDK, Anne Ledford, Rick Kluwe, WB4QAC, Vicky Kluwe, Vicky Byrnes, and Jim Needham, AJ4GM.

Every good "DF'er tests his equipment a dozen times before a hunt to make sure that nothing broke while he was getting it installed or just to get rid of the pre-hunt jitters.  Besides it looks pretty cool to be seen driving around in circles because then you become known as a "wheel."

This is Randy, a non-ham friend of Darrell Brock, N4GOA.  Randy has been to a couple of hunts now but I don't know that Darrell has been able to convince Randy that this is fine yet.

Now this is a real pre-hunt strategy planning session by 4 of the best BS'ers in the nation.  From left to right, Darrell Brock, N4GAO, Richard Cook, W2RAC, Glenn Karel, WB4WHN and with his back to the camera, Fred Villers, K8FV.  Standing next to the WB4WHN DF mobile platform.

The weatherman did not say anything about this but it never developed into anything significant enough to bother us or as a useable excuse for anyone to use after the hunt.

Bob, WA4IDI, and Anne finishing up the last minute hookups.  If you could have listened in it usually goes like this, "Wait a minute, I need more wire! Wait a minute! I still need more wire!   Will you just wait a minute? I got enough take some back!

Vicky Kluwe doing the Doppler shuffle for her significant other Rick, WB4QAC.  This just more proof that many DF'ers are equipment paranoid.  We tend to over check the equipment but fail to check the brain functions until to late.

The Doppler installation of N4GOA.   Very neat and tidy but it did not do Devious Darrell any good an hour later. I think the hand belongs to Hugh Royal, W4AND.

What started out looking like a low signal hunt turned into a driving marathon. The first signals received were really low level so the word from the bunny was "go North."

So everyone left the starting point heading North up Jimmy Ann Drive to LPGA Blvd. Decision time, "do we go West or East?" West! Right turn at Clyde Morris! Having not installed our GPS it was a little hard to visualize what was ahead but I was multi-tasking my brain at this point and not trying to second guess my equipment read outs. At Granada and Clyde Morris it was hard decision time left or right? The signal drifted more to the right so it was ‘right turn, Clyde!"

Arriving at Nova Road and Granada it was a very obvious "left turn required and I stuck my neck out and said "left turn at US 1." Heading North on US 1 I had a good idea where the bunny was but it was not locked in just yet. Just past the "Village of Pine Run" entrance the ball went dead right and I told Anne "go back to Pine Run and go East to North Beach Street and go North there! At this point I ventured my first guess that he was in the "James Ormond Park." SO we continued on our way North following the readout LED as it bounced around from reflections until it did a hard left turn! As Anne merrily drove past the entrance to the park. She hollers out, There is a white Tahoe in the parking lot too. Well turn around! Yea right! No, left! Just then she spotted what she considered a safe turn around point and we headed back.

There they were all snug and safe in the bunny lair, a push up mast with a Yagi antenna, spare battery and drinks to keep themselves cool! The bunny team consisted of Darryl Peterson, AB8GU, Paul Milward, NU4C, Bill Schwartz, WS1C and last but not lest, John LoCicero, K4TUG, hawking raffle tickets to every one that found them.

The least mistakes made teams were in the order of times, Team Cook consisting of Richard Cook, W2RAC and daughter Emily, Glenn Karel, WB4WHN and that wily equipment operator Fred Villers, K8FV. Team Walker, Lee and Laura Walker with Jim Needham, , in the back seat. Followed by Team Ledford, Bob, WA4IDI right seat equipment operator and Anne controlling the steering wheel and the go faster pedal.

Now we get to those unfortunate folks that while they tried really hard to live up to their past reputations did not make the time limit. Team Brock got there at 06 minutes after the cutoff time  of 2000 hours. Teams Kluwe, Kalashian and Schwartz (Robert and Matthew). Now I was going to say their problems may have been because their names started with a "K" but how do you factor in Schwartz to that equation? As Rick says it so well, "From hero to zero in one moment of time!"

Darrell Brock, N4GOA making his last chance dash for the roses only to come up with dandelions instead. But, he did find the bunny even though h was  6 minutes over the clock.

The bunnies lair with the bunnies sitting around the table.   Try to guess which one has the little white tail? Left to right, Paul Milward, NU4C, John LoCicero, K4TUG, Darryl Peterson, AB4GU and Bill Schwartz, WS1C.  The guy with the pretty legs is Darrell Brock, N4GOA.

Everyone relieved the tensions of the hunt by indulging in a ice cream pig out session at the National Gardens Dairy Queen for some of that wonderfully fattening D-Q ice cream treats and a chance to say "I was awesome" or my equipment was lying to me and a few admitted to having severe ocularrectious syndrome a.k.a. Glass Naval Syndrome.
 

Lee and Laura Walker sitting back and thinking "I can't believe that we were only second place finishers.

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The Bunny Turned into a Possum

by Bob Ledford, WA4IDI

Team Walker was the bunny for this month. But something was skewed and then they were at the food court with everybody else. What were they up to? I guess time will tell! Anyway we finished our meal and departed for the parking lot. As we assembled in the parking lot the head count was very slim only three hunters showed up.

After everyone had gotten set up we all stood around marking time by conversing. All of a sudden we noticed that it was time for the hunt to start and we have not heard from the bunny. A quick call on the repeater turned to the bunny up having startup problems. A short 10 minute delay and everything was back in order.  It turned out that the bunny crew had what they decided was a safety problem and chose to relocate position rather then compromise any one's safety.  Some teenagers and their friends with pickup trucks and  motorcycles had moved into the pre-picked area and had some pit bull dogs with them.

The parade started out of the parking lot and when we approached Mason Avenue the train fell apart. Another starburst formation occurred. Anne and I went with our instinct's and went south and Ricky went north. We really didn't exactly where he was but we ran into him at Fentress Blvd. However, we continued on our chosen path. We made right turn on Dunne Avenue then another right turn on to Bil France Blvd. and another right turn into the old GE complex. The signal kept improving as we drove west. There was Ricky again and here came Fred, Glenn and Richard. Everyone stopped, dismounted and found a possum hanging in the tree about the same time. After getting our numbers everyone departed for Steak and Shake for refreshments and more war stories.

It was probably one of the best weak signal hunts in the last year. The possum in the tree was super cool. The official finishing order was Richard, Glenn, and Fred in first, Ricky in second, and Bob an Anne in the third place.

(Pictures to follow)

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KA4WDK sweeps the Field by Bob Ledford WA4IDI

Art, Vicky and AJ swept the hidden transmitter hunt field this month like everyone was dragging their anchors or sailing into a stiff headwind. The hunt started off in a very non-ham tradition, using cell phones to get the pre-hunt signal reports coordinated. Getting that out of the way the hunters launched off the starting point on time.

Rick Kluwe, WB4QAC was our bunny of the month or the hidden transmitter. Almost every one of the hunters was queried by those not in the hobby as to why all the antennas. What is going on with all the cars and antennas, etc etc.

Almost everyone of the hunters made the same mistake and went over the Seabreeze Bridge to the beach side to turn right around and return to the mainland side of the river as he was hidden behind the furthest bridge support on land. This was the first time this spot had ever been used by anyone lately.

The turn out this month was excellent and everyone had a good time as all but one found the bunny’s lair in pretty good time. It had its little challenges but almost everyone got rewarded without having to drive all over the city to find him.

Finishing order was as follows:

First place in 12 minutes, Art, Vicky and AJ Byrnes

Second place in 14 minutes, Lee, and Laura Walker and Jim Needham

Third place in 16 minutes, Bruce and Ann Kalashian

Fourth place in 18 minutes, Glenn Karel, Fred Villers and Richard and Emily Cook

Fifth place in 20 minutes, Darrell Brock, Hugh Royal and Randy Brown

Sixth place in 22 minutes, Bob and Anne Ledford

Seventh place in 28 minutes, Robert and Nicole Schwartz

Eighth place was a "did not finish" which goes to Bruce and Ann Williams. They were in the area and in fact one time were stopped on the bridge right over the top of the bunny. Bruce is still working the kinks out of his Ramsey Doppler Scan System and should be a force to watch out for once he gets it down pat.

The before the hunt food fest at the Volusia Mall Food Court.  That was one long table of hams pigging out.

 

The Walker - Needham antenna farm mobile this setup is deadly when it comes to finding the hidden transmitters

 

This is Glenn Karel's newly fabricated window wind and rain guard that they fabricated into one of the slickest setups that I have ever witnessed.  It should be written up and submitted to the ham magazines it is the good.

The winner of the hunt Arthur Byrnes, KA4WDK readies his equipment for the hunt while waiting for the clock to tick on the the starting time.  Art uses a hand held antenna and a handi-talkie.  A very simplistic setup that works well for him.

Bruce Kalashian, KB4GW, his new vertical dipole doppler antenna system that he is making work.  The lady observing it in total disbelief is Anne Ledford.
 

The antenna blended in very good

 

The bunnies lair was really sort of cool but then what would you expect from "Ranger Rick?"
 

Poor little old homeless bunny rabbit.

 

                  

The after hunt festivities took place at The Shake Place at LPGA Blvd and Nova Road in Holy Hill. It was early enough to sit outdoors in evening light and just warm enough to not sweat or freeze to death if you did not want to wear a light jacket.

Our photographer this month was Hugh Royal; Thank you Hugh.  2010.04.17

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Exercise in Futility  by Bob Ledford (?)

It is Saturday March 20^th 2010 the night for Team Byrnes to go hid the hidden transmitter for this months bunny/fox hunt. Art is usually predictable with his hiding places as the last 2 have had a difficulty factor of between 6 and 9. So what will it be this month?

The following teams were missing, Team B Schwartz, Team Walker, Team Brock and Team Cooke. The following teams hunted; Kluwe. Ledford, R Schwartz, Kalashian, Bowen, Makky, Karel and Bowen. Williams started late and from home.

Remember the degree of difficulty number of 6 to 9? This one was a 10 plus as only one team found then within the hour allocated. Kluwe was 52 minutes into the hunt. Karel found them outside the hour after some serious clue dropping. Hidden South of the LPGA Golf and Country Club on Maintenance Drive Road about ½ to 3/4 of mile down the FPL high line service road

Team Makky being new hunters got initiated really good. They got stuck or buried on a dirt road in the mud. During their call for help Leah Bowen found them and between them they were still stuck. One of DBARA's young members, heard the call for help on K4BV, grabbed his tow sling and pickup truck along with his girl friend and came to their rescue. I don’t know for sure but I think our Knight of the Tow Truck was Jason Cote, WX4WTF.

Steak n Shake, Volusia and Nova was the chosen after hunt place and they fell flat on their face with poor service.

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"Coast watcher" After Action Report By Hugh Royal W4AND

Saturday, February 20, 2010

On this date, the bunny decided to pay tribute to the famed coastwatchers of the World War II era.  Facts and stories were pre-recorded so that information could be presented in a concise method within 30 minutes, as this is the general amount of time the hunt usually lasts.  To ensure a good signal, a test was performed two weeks prior to the hunt, with N4GOA providing the reception report of ‘plenty of signal.’  As happens, Mr. Murphy appeared on the day of the hunt.  First, the bunny had the wrong hunt frequency dialed in, and then there was not a good signal getting through.  To be fair, everyone was advised to start the hunt by heading north until they received a signal.

With 10 teams starting, the bunny expected to be inundated with hunters in short order.  When the hunt passed the 30 minute mark, the bunny became concerned.  When the hunt timer reached the 40 minute mark, the bunny was getting very nervous.  A quick cell phone call to N4GOA confirmed that everyone was still hunting.  Finally, at the 43 minute mark, Rick WB4QAC and Vicky grabbed the first spot, followed a minute later by Lee KJ4AQH and Laura KJ4AQG in second, and a minute after that by Darrell N4GOA, Harold KE8MR, and Randy at 45 minutes for third.  The bunny was beginning to hear a rumor of unflattering names from some hunters.

At 51 minutes, Bill W5IC and his driver Paul NU4C pulled up in fourth.  Bill wanted to examine the bunny’s antenna, a J-Pole about 30 feet up.  Bill stated the antenna was acting directional.  The bunny said, “Huh?” 

Eleven minutes later at 62 minutes Bruce KB4GW and Ann KA4MLQ arrived for spot number five.  Bruce informed the bunny that it was a miracle he found the hiding spot, as the Doppler had failed.  Eight minutes later Richard W2RAC, Glenn WB4WHN, and Fred K8FV pulled in for sixth place at 70 minutes.  At the 75 minute mark, Mark KI4ZKE and Ian KI4ZVH arrived as the final team still hunting, seventh place.  The final three teams had backed out for various reasons.

The after action dessert was held at the bunny’s home QTH, courtesy of Joan, the bunny’s YL.  The secret to the bunny’s longevity at not being found?  Four reasons: 1) Distance from start point; 2) Location; 3) Not having a car parked at the hiding site; and 4) Time of year.  The bunny hid just in the tree line behind an old, dark piece of plywood about seven miles from the start (as the crow flies).  There was no vehicle parked nearby to give away the location, and on this date, sundown is before the hunt starts.  The bunny, being the humble person that he is, will let others post any accolades about the hunt.

Unfortunately, there are no action pictures, just pictures of the bunny’s lair the day after the hunt.  There is a one-hour video though, mostly of vehicles speeding past on I-95, with a lot of noise.  When a hunter does come into view, only the legs are seen, as the bunny did not bring a tripod for the camcorder.

 

         Bunny’s Lair  

         Approach from South    

           Bunny’s View of Road

             Bunny’s Lair from the Road

              Approach from North

               Bunny and Friends at Previous Hunt

OMG, First Hide

It will be hard for Hugh to top this one. It had enough features for several hunts.

1 You think you can just drive straight there, you are screwed

2 You get on the wrong side of I-95, you are screwed

3 You get on the wrong side of the Tomoka, you are screwed

4 You think an antenna taped to a tree is omni-directional, you

    are screwed

5 You think cars will be close to the bunny, you are screwed

6 You think you can see the bunny in the woods, you are screwed

That’s what happened to us.  The Three Mosquito's

Webmasters note "I think Fred is trying to say Hugh put the screws to their  game plan.  I know he put me in my place!"

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The Hunt That Went Well From The "Get Go!" by Bob Ledford, WA4IDI 2010.01.17

Every now and then things for some reason don’t get ole man Murphy involved in them and this was one of those hunts. To say it was a perfect hunt would be a lie but the error to no error ratio was really low. The "three Mosquito's" Fred, K8FV, Glenn, WB4WHN and Richard, W2RAC were all supervised by Emily Cook and did their best to stage a nearly flawless hunt. The hide burrow was the former main parking lot of the Showboat Restaurant, Port Orange.

What flaws were there you ask? To say they were flaws may not be the proper word just errors that kept the show from running smoother then it did. The Volusia Traffic Net ran over the normal time from 1830 to just past 1900 hours which tied up the K4BV repeater a little longer then the hunters wanted. But they were just as entitled as we were to use it. Despite the fact that the hunters were running a 100 watts to a 4 element quad at 7 feet there were places that the signal just plain disappeared due to some extremely deep nulls in its radiation pattern.

A real plus to this hunt was the on time was a minute and 30 seconds and the off time was only 30 seconds which was a big help in that your chances of over driving the bunny were greatly reduced.

They finished in this order:

1^st in 19 minutes Darrell Brock and Hugh Royal

2^nd in 29 minutes Lee and Laura Walker and Jim Needham

3^rd in 30 minutes Ricky and Vicky Kluwe

4^th in 37 minutes Bob and Anne Ledford

5^th in 38 minutes Robert, Nicole and Matthew Schwartz

6^th in 39 minutes Bill and Pat Schwartz

7^th in 59 minutes Bruce and Ann Kalashian with Bruce and Ann Williams

The after hunt gala affair of note taking and error comparing was held at the Cow Lick Ice Cream Shoppe on South Atlantic Avenue Daytona Beach Shores.

  Laura and Lee Walker

The whole motley crew

Front to back; Darrel Brock's head, Anne Ledford, Vicky Kluwe, Robert Schwartz, right to left Nicole Schwartz, Nicole's daughter and Pat Schwartz
 

Left to right; Lee walker, Jim Needham hiding behind the drink container, Rick Kluwe in the black cap and Pat Schwartz with a slice of Nicole Schwartz's face

Left to right;  Darrell Brock N4GOA and Hugh Royal W4AND our prouder then a peacock winners and care takers of Ben Forgotten, the trophy bunny.  Standing out in front of Cow Licks Ice Cream Shoppe.

Darrell promising Lee that he would ensure that Ben the Bunny would be well taken care of until the next hunt hand off unless of course Darrell wins again.

Vicky Kluwe wandering around in the dark looking for the antenna of the transmitter

 

Lee Walker arriving at ground zero saying "OK Bunny your life is limited for I am here to capture your bunny tail."

 

Next months hunt will be put on by Hugh Royal, W4AND, and it will be his first solo hunt show since he has been with us. Good luck with Murphy Hugh!

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December 2009

This month the hunt was canceled as half of the team decided it was time to check out his health insurance policy to see how well it did not work and Darrell Brock N4GOA had a heart attack on Saturday December the 12th in his front yard.  DB it was the yard work not the food at Hampton's.

For further details see the DF News Page

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The Great Transmitter Hunt of November or Thank Goodness for Thanksgiving Coming Sooner then Later
by Bob Ledford, WA4IDI

　

First thing I want to say is a big "thank you" to all that turned out for this transmitter hunt towards the end of this past week I was beginning to wonder if it would be worth the effort and everyone’s participation proved that it was. Sorry that Teams Byrnes and Brock were not able to attend due to work and family conflicts. But it goes without saying that family and work take precedence before playtime.

Being the bunny this month started out being a real challenge as I wanted to equal or surpass the challenges of the last hunt that we, Anne and I, came up with. Plus I wanted to not be put into the category of "he will be here and do this!" Surprisingly to everyone the driving factor was that we did not want to use the Daytona Beach Stake n Shake as our after hunt dining experience. So we based our plan on the Ormond Beach Steak n Shake which proved to be a good choice overall. Secondly, I didn’t want to use an old spot over again but we wanted it to be a easier to find location for everyone to find. You get a much larger personal reward if everyone gets to find the elusive signal or "rabbit."

Where did we hid the "bunny?" The spot that we picked out in the daylight was in the very Northwest corner of the parking lot at the Regal 6 Theater customer parking lot. This put us just South of the West Granada Beall’s and Publix shopping center where there were a large amount of metal shipping containers in use as storage for the shopping center tenants. I was counting on them as reflectors and from hunter reports they worked great! One plus that we had not thought of was the fact that the theater would have been as busy as they were. The lot was almost at full capacity with gobs of traffic incoming an outgoing.

Coming up on the pre-hunt signal checking time with the "foxes at the Starting Point (SP)" the nightly Volusia County Traffic Net was doing it usual Saturday night thing and running late so we utilized the non ham tool called the cell phone to check with the SP for signal strength and get a list of foxes hunting. Instead of the anticipated 5 teams we had 7 and would you believe it that was the exact number of finish cards I had made up in advance.

The order of finish was:

Team Walker In 17 minutes,

Team Bill Schwartz in 18 minutes

Team Kalashian in 28 minutes

Team Cook, Viller and Karel in 35 minutes

Team Robert Schwartz in 37 minutes

Did Not Finish:

Team Kluwe

Team Bowen

2009.11.22

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The Pre-Hunt Fiasco

by Bob Ledford, WA4IDI 2009.11.21

Every hunt is never like the last one as most of us know. This one was no different so I felt the need to tell the world and laugh at myself simultaneously. Here is our tale of happenings.

For a start every good rabbit searches for a good hole every time he leaves the lair. Your always looking for the ideal spot every trip to somewhere, has it been used before, is it public or private property, would it be to easy to find etc.? This one was no exception so we started by paring down the list from 20 to 10 then to 5 then 2 then by 1 to pick the spot.

The equipment list was the next goal especially since I was wanting to reduce it to the barest of minimums for several reasons. The first reason was to eliminate Murphy and the second was to make it easier to set up and thirdly I am downright lazy and contrary at the same time.

So I had my priorities and I set about making them work. First was to get a package plan for portability of everything. I settled on what was in the garage at the time a used plastic bucket, a can of black paint, a VHF linear amplifier from the motorcycling days, the ole ICOM HT from previous hunts and the ever-changing radiation patterns stealthy J-pole roll up stick it in the suite case VHF antenna. Last but not least important was an obsolete extend a pole made out of fiberglass that in its previous life had been someone’s prize electric tree trimmer tool

First tasks were to fit the battery to the bucket which out of the two batteries I had on hand the smallest and lightest one turned out to the deader of the two. So in went the heavy weight version.

The pole followed next after it had been painted black and dried almost completely. Did you know that if you spray paint rubber grips that it refuses to dry in the spot that you will always grab it by for days to follow? Believe it as Anne got all over my case when she got black paint all over her hands during the take down phases of the hunt.

The j-pole antenna was fitted up to the extend-a-pole and tie wrapped in place. Tip, tighten the tie wrap so it won’t slip and slide during storage or collapsing the pole.

Rounded up the amplifier and a clamp to hold it in place inside of the bucket. Deciding that it would not be cool or smart to let it float loose on top of a discharging high amperage battery. Got to find a smaller, lighter motorcycle battery before the next hunt.

Velcroed the PicCon Controller to the back side of the ICOM O2AT belt clip and hooked everything up and checked for VSWR, resonance and tweaked the linear for maximum watts output, It all worked! Now to field set it up and check it out.

Friday arrived and the plan was simple. Anne was to take the Silverado and its VHF radio to the mall and combine a trip to the mall and check signal readability. I was to go setup at the theater parking lot and call her via a cell phone when ready. She left and I loaded up in the Traverse and locked up the house. I arrived and got setup in less then 5 minutes and reached for my cell phone. Oops, I left it at home. Oh damn! What do I do now? Lights flashed and my brain said, use the OnStar dummy! So I called her via OnStar and we got the test over with a whopping S-7 using low power at the mall. Disassembled everything and put it back in the back of the Traverse and headed off to Hampton’s for lunch with the gang.

Saturday arrived and we were pre-loaded so we headed out about 6:30 P.M. and arrived to find our spot vacant and waiting. I proceeded to spot everything in place and powered everything up and ran a pretest sequence showing everything to be a go. Then it happened, the PicCon Controller sucked the last millivolt out of its battery and refused to start up. Lucky me I brought a spare so quickly I replaced it and the show started for sure now. Running its full hour and shutting itself down just as I was in the process of uncovering everything to shut it down for the night.

2009.11.22

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The Three Mosquitoes Stung Everyone
by Bob Ledford, WA4IDI 2009.10.25

The 24th of October hunt put on by Richard Cook, W2RAC, Fred Villers, K8FV and Glenn Karel, WB4WHN was a doozey of a hunt.  It required every bunny hunter to use all of his or her skills.  Even Team Walker would have been sucked up and spit out in this one.

This month's participants were KB4GW, WB4QAC, WA4IDI, WS1C, KJ4FBN and KA4WDK. 

The order of finish was WB4QAC, 40 min; KB4GW, 45 min; KJ4FBN, 48 min; WA4IDI. 60 min; and WS1C at 70 min; with KA4WDK as a DNF.  Art was the only hunter without a Doppler so he was having to stop, jump out, DF and jump back in every other minute.

The Mosquitoes hid the bunny on the beach itself just off the end of the pedestrian walkway at the sea shore public park in Daytona Beach Shores just South of the old Hilton Inn Shores.  The antenna was held up by a 3/8ths wooden dowel rod buried or stuck in the sand with the numbers very neatly stacked on the top section with the tags having a hole punched in them.  Really clever, guys!   

Darrel Peterson rode with Bill Schwartz and son Robert hunted with Nicole his brand new wife and their two children.  Emily Cook supervised Richard her Dad.  While AJ and Vicky tried to keep Arts blood pressure from causing a heart attack or stroke. Both Anne and Ann did their best to keep their spouse's under control too.  Ricky's Vicky was plum tuckered out from closing her Thread and Yarn shop all day long and stayed home.  Darrell Brock and Paul Milward were in SC with a County Hunters gathering and did not hunt.  No one saw or heard from the Walker's, Jim Needham, Omar Vargas or the Bowen's.

2009.10.25

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The Walker’s Do It Again To Everyone

by Bob Ledford, WA4IDI, 2009.09.19

　

This months bunny hunt was to put on by Jim Needham since the rest of Team Walker was not expected to be available but they got home in time and they did it to us again. Thank you Team Walker for putting on one fine hunt this month. Every hunting team was a winner in that we all got there at almost the same time and it was not a totally easy hunt to find the location and it sure was not easy to find the transmitter. The only glitch in the whole deal was the numbers that Jim had in his pocket instead of at the hidden transmitter.

Where did they put it? Since Team Walker is starting to establish a marine oriented location trend this one followed suit. The transmitter was skillfully hidden underneath the wood walkway to the gazebo located about 100 feet in the Halifax River behind the University Avenue Fire Station at Halifax Drive. Jim very skillfully hid the bunny box equipment under the board walk at the bank and the antenna on the south side of a 4 X 4 holding up the wooden railings on the south side of the walkway. The antenna was found almost simultaneously by the first 4 teams but only Bruce Kalashian was brave enough and small enough to get down on his hands and knees to poke his hands under the walkway to jerk the handy-talkie and PicCon controller out and disassemble it which was our penalty to Jim for not being there with the numbers. He had to put it back together again for 5 and 6 to find it.

We are a mean bunch of fox’s. This was the same gazebo and walkway that Team Brock used last year except that it was not raining and lightning striking all over the place this time. Don’t really know who got in the area first as it seemed like we all landed or converged at once [1 thru 4 then 5 and 6]. The time it took was between 30 and 45 minutes out of the hour allocated.

The after hunt social event was held at the Volusia and Nova Steak and Shake again. Where every one descended on the restaurant almost simultaneously. A very different event happened to Anne, myself and Team Walker on the way back to the park parking lot. We were met by a pair of walkers that lived on the corner of one of the side streets in the neighborhood wanting to know "what was going on?" So we all took time to explain the activity to them and they were very impressed for our outward friendliness and taking the time to socialize with them. Their concept of radio people was strictly CB related and who knows maybe we might get a couple of new hams out of the deal.

Participants and finishing order:

Team Kalashian consisting of Bruce and Ann K and Bruce and Ann Williams.

Team Schwartz consisting of Bill S and Paul Milward.

Team Ledford consisting of Bob and Anne Ledford.

Team Schwartz II consisting of Robert and Matthew Schwartz.

Team Cook Consisting of Richard and Emily Cook and Fred Villers.

Team Brock consisting of Darrell and the bunny.

We missed seeing the Byrnes’s, Bowen’s, Kluwe’s, Darryl Peterson, John LoCicero, Hugh Royal, Glenn Karel and Omar.

In concurrence with the keep it accurate law of 2009 here is Bill's version

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You Don’t Always Get What You Want

by Bob Ledford, WA4IDI

2009-08-15

The mystery bunny was the dastardly rabbit hiding team of Arthur and Vicky Byrnes minus AJ this month. Some one made the mistake of commenting in front of the bunny that this months hunt would be a drive up piece of cake. It would have been a drive up if you had a golf cart or a power wheel chair but for the rest of us it turned into a long hike up and over. Yes, if you have guessed the answer and came up with the "Pedestrian Overpass at International Speedway Boulevard" you are a winner.

The first bunny on the scene was the Team of Darrell and Hugh in a slow time of 6 minutes. Team Two was Bruce and Ann Kalashian with Darryl Peterson as a ride along to see what it was like. Team Three was the Schwartz bunch of rabble rousers. Team Four was the steady Team Ledford and Team Five was that bunch of misfits with the "octomon rig" Richard and Emily Cook, Glenn Karel and the ever steady Fred Villers making the monster work.

The Byrnes were making good use of the K4BV repeater as they were having Murphy Problems from the get go. Some of us lost the signal due to discharged HT batteries and just plain over driving the signal.

The fact that Murphy is so fast on his feet that he left the Byrnes hidey hole and traveled to the Ledford Silverado is amazing. I was experiencing a rapid loss of signal and then the lights turned on. I forgot to put the stingers on the antenna’s so we pulled off the road, installed 4 stingers and instantly had more signal then needed so it was just a matter of making 2 pass’s under the overpass and watching the signal go from N to S and S to N then turning in West Street to the North end of the overpass.

The after hunt meeting place was the Steak N Shake at Nova and ISB where the service took longer then the hunt itself. But the after hunt BS session was loud and continuous for a long time.

Team Walker was absent again, come on guys and Laura, we missed you for the second month in a row.

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Almost a flawless hunt
by Bob Ledford, WA4IDI

It was so hot that I almost did not want to get out of the air-conditioned cab of the truck to find the "bunny rabbit." But they insist that you must find the hidden transmitter and just arriving at the scene first did not count. So we, Anne and I bailed out in to the hot, humid heat of the evening. After all we had not made one wrong move at this point into the game.

I went to the back of the truck and whipped out the tape measure antenna and clipped the ICOM IC-90A to it, turned everything on and made sure the offset was in the active attenuator then I decided to hookup the RF sniffer to the spare antenna and go as a two antenna hunter. Armed with my two antennas one in each hand I struck out only to hear him sign off for the down period so I continued on the visual recon of the area. Finding one antenna in a tree but it was an obvious decoy so I continued the recon. By now that dad burn Rick WB4QuACk was hot on my butt too.

So I passed the RF sniffer antenna to Anne with a 5 nanosecond lesson in what to do. I gave her the general area and then the sniffer went off and she was hot on his trail with the both of us finding Robert Schwartz at the same time followed by Quack.

This is when the flaws started to show up, Robert said he did not have the numbers. We, Rick an I, took that to mean we had not found the antenna but Anne went to the picnic table where Bill WS1C and Paul NU4C were imitating a decoy bunny site and she got the number ! tag. Meanwhile QuACk and I continued to hunt but I really screwed up at this point. I thought I had found the antenna hidden behind a tree so I went down the river bank and got trapped by a crumbling bank . QuACk came to my rescue by taking my antenna with the HT on it so that I could scramble and pull myself out of the river bank. While Anne threatened to kick some serious butt if I got hurt.

Flaws continued on as Teams Walker and Byrnes were lost somewhere. Team Walker showed up but went to the wrong DQ for ice cream. Team Byrnes I think got lost in the Trails and we may never find them again.

The technical findings that I know everyone is waiting for are as follows:

Team     Time to site     Time to find

WA4IDI     7:21                 7:28

WB4QuACk7:24                 7:30

N4GOA      7:33                 7:35

WB4WHN   7:42                 7:45

Walker       7:55                 7:58

Byrnes       0:00                  0:00

Note - W2RAC did not hunt due to mental and physical errors

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It was not a Bust But It T’weren’t Easy Either

by Bob Ledford, WA4IDI

　

The Walker’s plus one, Jim Needham AJ4GM, wanted to put on a bunny hunt so this month (May) they took my scheduled hunt slot. Needless to say they almost out did themselves this time. The difficulty factor getting there was a 4 out of 10 but the finding that rascal after you got there was a 9 out of 10. They hid the transmitter and antenna in a weed bush on the bank of the river in amongst a boulder field on the East side of the Halifax River underneath the Seabreeze Bridge on the West end of the retention pound furthest point from the parking lot area, and the antenna had so many weird lobes on it you could stand right next to it and not hear it or detect it and Jim swears he was radiating 7 watts if it was a milliwatt I would have been surprised.

The first hunter on the scene was Bill Schwartz, Robert, Paul and John. Followed by Richard Cook and Fred Villers. They found it nanoseconds between each other. Then Bob and Anne Ledford. Followed by Bruce and Ann Kalashian and once again they would be hard pressed to say who found it first as Bruce and Bob were inches from the antenna at the same time.

In closing if I would say there was one winning team it would be story telling so lets just leave it like this. There two finishing teams officially 1^st (Schwartz and Cook) and 2^nd (Ledford and Kalashian). That makes it as fair and honest as you can put it.

05.16.2009

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