One of my favorite Special Event stations is Santa, who is on the air from Finland every season. This year, Santa has a special callsign, OJ9X, which also celebrates Finland’s 100th Year. Looks like Santa has a Flex Maestro now, wonder if he’s operating remotely!
Additional Holiday Special Events
5B4XMAS QSL
Looks like there are several more Christmas special events, 5B4XMAS from Cyprus, YP2XMAS – YP9XMAS from Romania, 4X2XMAS – 4X9XMAS from various locations in Israel.
Get on the air and work these stations and you’ll get some nice Christmas (QSL) cards in the mail!
Jamey, KC1ENX let the N1FD foxes loose in Nashua, NH this past weekend to give all of us a chance to track them down. This is not the first time that our foxes have roamed to wilds on New Hampshire. We let them loose during our summer picnic this year. We always have fun and improve our radio direction finding skills while doing a Fox Hunt!
Fox News Alert – N1FD Foxes Roaming Nashua
We woke this past Saturday to a Fox News Alert! Fox News contributor Jamey, KC1ENX reported –
“Two foxes have been spotted in the Nashua area! It has been reported that N1FD-fox1 was heard on Route 3 this morning on 146.565. It has also been reported that N1FD-fox2 could be heard from close to N1FD-fox2’s location on a frequency of 146.535.”
Hunting the Large Fox
I went down to our shack and turned on the 2m rig. Sure enough, there was the howl of the large fox (audio recording above) so I gathered my HT and Elk Yagi antenna and set off to track down the Wiley critters. I stopped just beyond my house near Rt. 122 in Hollis, NH to get an initial fix. Sure enough, I heard the large critter’s bark coming from the general direction of Nashua. A couple of fixes along Rt. 3 indicated that the fox was in a den in Mine Falls Park so I drove there and parked. By this time, the fox was clearly audible on the mobile rig in my truck. I switched my HT to the big fox’s third harmonic frequency and headed for a high spot on a bridge in the center of the park. Sure enough, there the Wiley critter was – just ahead on the trail.
The Large Fox in its Lair
I got very close to the large fox when I encountered Bob, W1FDR who had a very effective close in system which used an HT and a dish. Bob said:
“Lets team up and we’ll track the critter down”.
So we did team up and it did not take long to find the fox’s hideout. We both signed the fox log and turned our attention to finding the smaller fox.
Hunting the Small Fox
Bob W1FDR by the Small Fox’s Den
The small fox was audible from the large fox’s den using my Yagi and HT. We tracked the small fox across the soccer fields at Mine Falls Park and over a small ridge. Once we got close, Bob used his dish system to track down the small fox in its den.
Fox Hunting Equipment
The combination of my Yagi and Bob’s dish system worked very well for hunting the foxes. The Yagi was surprisingly directional at longer range and this made it relatively easy to get close to both foxes. Bob’s dish was great for the final, close-in location of the foxes in their dens.
I had a great time hunting the foxes and I am looking forward to another hunt this coming Saturday after our breakfast get together at Parker’s Maple Barn in Mason, NH. I am looking for some folks to team with again for the hunt this coming Saturday. Talley-ho!
As we just held our annual officer elections, I’d like to thank the departing officers for their service to the club. Departing the Executive committee are:
Our Executive Committee members have worked hard to move the Nashua Area Radio Society forward this past year. Some of our major progress in 2017 includes:
We increased our Youth Engagement through many activities and initiatives for young people including working with students from local schools to launch two High Altitude Balloons.
We helped 28 new Amateurs into the hobby through our Technician license classes and we helped 20 Amateurs earn General and/or Extra upgrades as part of our license classes in the Spring and Fall.
