"T-hunting" or "Fox hunting" in amateur radio is practicing radio direction finding techniques by a group of teams searching for a hidden transmitter.
Here in the valley we do this as an organized fun event. We start from one of a few starting points (the choice is by the hidding team and is anounced in advance) and the first team to find the hidden transmitter is the winner and the hidding team for the next hunt. As the various teams find the transmitter they are given the location of a near by pizza restaraunt and everyone gets together there after all have done their best and have pizza and such and just generally raise a ruckus (have a good time). In our hunts the hidden transmitter starts at a pre-determined time (19:00 local time) and then transmitts for thirty seconds at a time, on a two minute cycle (30 seconds on and 1 minute & 30 seconds off).
My first picture is of Dick WB7VIS with his beam type hand held "sniffer" (direction finder). He had just finally found our infamous hidden transmitter. He had decided that we had some how buried it under a rock and then almost fell on it as our fake rock flipped over as he tried a little to hard to roll it out of the way.
Here is Barry Mead (N7MQX) and Myself, Hal Mann (WA7ZCZ) showing the infamous Hidden transmitter and the artifical rock that we used to disguise it.
It is an ICOM 32AT, modified for the crossband remote modification, and using a couple of transistor heatsinks (and a little battery op. Fan) and powered with an external gel cell battery. We hid it by placing it under an artificial rock that Barry and his brother Tray made. Barry's brother Tray is the associated with the Mesa Southwest Museum and is very good at making realistic looking scenery. Almost all the hunters were within a hundred yards within minutes of the start of the hunt, but it took almost an hour for the first hunter to find it! Everyone had a great time hunting and also at the pizza party afterwards.
