What is a fox hunt? Well, it depends on whom you ask.

If you are talking to a ham radio operator, he/she is apt to tell you that foxhunting is a sport over the airwaves in which ham radio enthusiasts search for a hidden transmitter—the fox—using directional antennas.

In one form, an amateur radio club will hold an annual fox hunt at a mutually decided wooded location—the meet—and a group of ham operators—the hounds—try to find the fox. They look a lot like your huntsman after a meet trying to recover his missing hounds by homing in on their radio collars with his directional radio receiver.

Instead of bragging about how well their horses jump the fences, these foxhunters pride themselves in the design and discrimination of their antennas and the electronic nuances of their hand-held receivers.

Click here for a fox hunt with the Bullit ARS in Bernheim Forest, Shepherdsville, Kentucky.

Posted November 23, 2011