[ARDF] Growing ARDF, was Re: Fun and Frustration

[Marvin Johnston]

Many thanks to those of you who posted your thoughts; there were a lot 
of good points brought up! To get new people involved (and people to 
return as well) in ARDF, we need to have an idea of why we are not 
getting more success, hence the question.

I'm not sure what the optimum time is to have events, but monthly seems 
to be the minimum where at least some people stay involved.

Something that has been on my mind for a while now is to create an 
online training program that could serve as an introduction to ARDF (and 
other types of transmitter hunting as well.) This would also serve as a 
way to get people involved on a more regular basis where physically 
meeting is impractical.

One thing I see over and over, especially with young kids, is the 
inability to recognize the sounds of when the 2M antenna is pointing 
towards or away from the transmitter. Let's not even go into 
reflections, or airplane flutter, or ??? ... yet :).

The one video I am still really impressed with is the one done at the 
N.C. US ARDF Championships by Gary Pierce with the video microphone put 
into the headset. This allowed the actual sound of what we are searching 
for to come through the audio.

Another useful demonstration was at the 1999 Dayton Hamvention where Joe 
Legio, WB2HOL, demonstrated antenna polarization with his Tape Measure 
Beam and whoopie mode receiver.

And I still remember the conversation with Jiri Marichek (sp?) from the 
Czech Republic where he and his team would work each weekend developing 
kids to participate in orienteering and ARDF.

These types of things could be put onto video and offered as a training 
course. Topics I've thought about include the basics of ARDF, putting on 
an ARDF event, and training exercises along with a long list of others.

What questions/skills do you think would be important to include in such 
a training?



On the topic of growing ARDF, I noticed from an earlier post that Vadim 
is putting on weekend hunts:

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I am not sure if everyone knows, we have active on-foot ardf fox hunts
almost every weekend in Boston area.

Visit website for more imformation www.bostonardf.org and register if
you are interested.

73!

Vadim
KB1RLI

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I'm rather excite to hear about that and I'll be VERY interested to see 
the results!

Marvin, KE6HTS