[ARDF] ARDF Trends

Wed Jul 15 20:09:12 PDT 2009

When talking to orienteers, I generally use the term radio-orienteering, 
but also add ARDF so they have at least heard the term.

Bruce, I think you were with us when we were talking to Jiri in the 
Czech Republic about how he got kids involved. I really liked the idea 
of having a team of people getting together once a week on Saturday to 
teach orienteering and ARDF.

Part of the problem has been mentioned previously ... it is too easy to 
sit in front of the tube and go mindless.

Another part is the "build it and they will come" mentality which 
doesn't seem to work with ARDF.

One thing Joe and I have done is to hold antenna workshops where people 
can buy a kit that includes the tape measure beam and offset attenuator. 
We have the tools and help for them to build it, learn how to use it, 
and then go out on a course. This seems to be working relatively well, 
and while slow, we are getting new people involved.

At the last orienteering meet, I showed a couple of orienteers how to DF 
on 2M with the tape measure beam and Bryan's receiver. After 
demonstrating the technique, one of them took a MicroHunt transmitter 
and hid it maybe 50M away. The success the first person had finding it 
caused the second person to try it out. Both had fun and are looking for 
meets in their area.

I don't think a once-a-month event is enough to get/keep people 
interested, so more frequent events would probably help.

I can hardly wait to go back to being a professional bum so I'll have 
time to do more :).

Marvin, KE6HTS

bruce wrote:
> I agree radio orienteering better describes the sport, and we generally use
> that term. It does depend on your audience. If you are writing for a Ham
> magazine, ARDF may still be better (it has "Amateur" in it), but your
> observation about hams in general is also our finding. We have many Amateurs
> in the club, but almost all are involved in mobile foxhunting to some extent
> as well, so were already willing to get out of the shack.
> 
> Interestingly, we have 4 new Foundation Class Amateurs (referred to here as
> F calls) who all came in contact originally through orienteering, so it
> works both ways.
> 
> All but a handful of our radio (or "RadiO" short for radio orienteering),
> are held in conjunction with orienteering events. There are a number of
> reasons for this, but the hope is to also attract orienteers. It's gradual,
> even glacial, but it does draw one in every now and then.
> 
> Homing Beacons we use intermittently. Often they are more trouble than they
> are worth, because if the Start and Finish are co-located, they can cause
> interference when competitors are starting. To be honest the main reason to
> use them, when we do, is to make sure we retain the ability to run a
> International Rules style event, rather than a real need for the
> competitors. Can be handy if you break/lose your compass, however, not just
> to get home, but to estimate bearings to other TXs.
> 
> Interested in ways people find to attract more to the sport, because it's
> not easy !
> 
> Cheers,
> Bruce
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ardf-bounces at kkn.net [mailto:ardf-bounces at kkn.net] On Behalf Of Gerald
> Boyd
> Sent: Thursday, 16 July 2009 9:39 AM
> To: 'Marvin Johnston'; ardf at kkn.net
> Subject: Re: [ARDF] ARDF Trends
> 
> I have been thinking about no longer using the name ARDF and switching to
> using "radio-orienteering" to try to get orienteer's and non hams interested
> in the sport.  
> 
> Using T-Hunting, fox hunting and ARDF is appearing to cause lack of interest
> and the numbers to decline in our area. 
> 
> Just a thought. I Welcome any ideas, comments etc to get this sport to
> expand. The average ham population does not appear to be interested in this
> type of contest. They just want to sit in front of radios. That's based on
> local experience with trying to get new people out or to attend ham fest
> talks.
> 
> Also considering no longer using homing beacons at our meets. 
> 
> Starting with our July 25th orienteering / radio-orienteering meet. Finish
> is marked on the map. Runners should know where they are on the map at all
> times and how to re-locate if map contact is lost.
> 
> This is based on my experience at the 2006 world championships when the
> homing beacon quit. I had to orienteer to the finish with the aid of that
> thing. I think the homing beacon is an unnecessary distraction. Maybe that's
> because I have been doing orienteering and have been getting more in touch
> with O-maps.
> 
> Jerry
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ardf-bounces at kkn.net [mailto:ardf-bounces at kkn.net] On Behalf Of Marvin
> Johnston
> Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 8:24 AM
> To: ardf at kkn.net
> Subject: Re: [ARDF] ARDF Trends
> 
> 
> Okay, I took a look at the terms radio-orienteering, foxhunts, t-hunts,
> t-hunting, foxhunting, and radiosport plus a few others, and none of them
> had enough data to show a graph.
> 
> Google trends is at http://www.google.com/trends, so try it out.
> 
> Another interesting article that might apply to not getting people involved
> in our sport is:
> 
> Is the iPhone Killing Your Creativity?
> http://lateralaction.com/articles/iphone-creativity/
> 
> I think a KEY to getting people involved is to get them involved, and not
> just tell them how much fun it is. Very few people seem to be such that they
> will take an idea and run with it; most need to have some hand-holding ...
> and a group to do it with.
> 
> Marvin, KE6HTS
> 
> 
> 
> Jay Hennigan wrote:
>> Homingin at aol.com wrote:
>>
>>> Could it be because "ARDF" has not caught on as a popular term for 
>>> what we do here in the USA?  We long-timers use the term, but not the
> average ham.
>>> When I hear people talking on the air about our events in the park, 
>>> they call them transmitter hunts, foxhunts, direction finding hunts 
>>> (sometimes even "directional" finding) and T-hunts, but they hardly 
>>> ever call them ARDF sessions.
>>>
>>> My guess is that there are plenty of people searching for hidden 
>>> transmitter hunting information, but they use so many different terms 
>>> to find it that no single term rises up onto the Google trends list.
>> And even true ARDF (as opposed to other forms of transmitter hunting) 
>> goes by "Radio-orienteering" and "Radiosport" among different groups.
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