Don’t worry, it’s not an English-style hunt involving cruelty to animals. Our ‘fox’ is the crafty Mr Farrell Segall, broadcasting a low-power radio signal from a secret location. Starting from Queen Elizabeth park, and armed with a direction-finding radio receiver, the participants will set off by bike, transit or car and try to find the source of the transmissions. The transmitter only broadcasts for one minute out of every ten, so there will be 13 transmissions during the two hour event. You will need a map and a compass to mark the direction of the transmissions as you move around. Where your lines intersect you will find the MakerMobile … if you’ve been accurate enough! If not, don’t despair - you will have been issued with a sealed envelope at the start with our secret location, so you can still join us for a picnic and a cold drink!
This event promises to be a lot of fun! You can build your own receiver for 1.8MHz or pay $10 to borrow one of ours (limited number available).
Find out more about “Fox Hunting” (amateur radio direction finding) in this Wikipedia article. There are even international championships!
Register: If you want to reserve a receiver, please email Farrell [at] makermobile.org. You can also just show up on the day and see if there are any receivers left. There will probably be enough to go around. Please “Join” the Facebook event and invite your friends!
Cost: FREE ($10 deposit for a MakerMobile receiver), donations gratefully accepted
Where: Queen Elizabeth Park, south parking lot near the Pitch ‘n Putt
Who: Casual all-ages event, any size teams. Emphasis is on fun rather than competition.
When: Saturday, July 20th at 3pm - 6pm
3pm - 3:30pm: Rendezvous with us at the start and collect your radio receiver and instructions. There will be a chance to familiarize yourself with the equipment before you set off.
4pm: First transmission. Transmissions continue every 10 minutes (i.e at 10, 20, etc minutes after the hour) so make sure your watch is accurate!
6pm: Last transmission. By now some of the teams will hopefully have found us and are relaxing with their picnic baskets! If you didn’t find us, just open your sealed envelope to find out where we are and come join us.
The start and end will be within 5km of each other, so we highly recommend bicycle as a transport option provided you have a secure way to carry the radio and your snacks and supplies. The radio is a small box attached to a rigid metal hoop about a foot in diameter.
Get a team together and register with us ASAP so that you are guaranteed a radio!
Running is optional at our event!
