The best and the most sought-after ARDF event by all Bangalore hams. Having successfully conducted 21 ARDF events so far, each year, these events bring the best out hams. Their ingenuity, homebrewing skills, and their navigation skills are put to test. The joy of winning and the fellowship is what the participants look forward to. Check out the ARDF events held by BARC.
Amateur Radio Direction Finding
BARC Foxhunt (on foot) will be held on Sunday, July 14, 2024
Venue: Dr Annie Besant Park, Doddaballapur, Bengaluru, Karnataka (13.2806°N, 77.5647°E. GRID: MK83sg)
Results
Results announcement (July 15, 2024)
Registration
Registrations are closed. Last date of registration was Sunday, July 7, 2024 (23:59 hrs)
Information
- Both hams and SWLs are welcome to participate.
- Each participant will compete/ hunt individually.
- All participants are expected to report at the venue by 08:30 AM. Note that the venue is about 40 km from the Bangalore city center, therefore plan your travel accordingly to reach the venue on time.
- On arrival, please proceed to the registration desk to collect your registration kit, ID cards, and RFID cards, and then proceed for breakfast.
- A South Indian breakfast will be served at the venue.
- After the breakfast, there will be a briefing on the competition process and rules.
- Do not miss the briefing. Those reporting late and not present during the briefing will not be allowed to participate.
- After the briefing, all participants must deposit their antennas and radio setup on the tarpaulin sheet placed on the ground near the registration area.
- Each participant will be flagged off individually with a 2-minute time gap between each participant.
- Each participant will be allowed to take possession of their setup just before their start time.
- Flagoff will start at 10:00 AM sharp.
- Participants who complete hunting, shall switch off their setup, return to the registration area, hand over RFID cards, and deposit their setup back on the tarpaulin and wait till the competition concludes. Participants will be allowed to take possession of their setup immediately after the competition concludes.
- The competition concludes at 12:30 PM. Regardless of your progress in finding the transmitters, please return to the registration area by this time to hand over the RFID cards and proceed for lunch, and eyeball QSOs with all participants.
- A vegetarian lunch will be served from 12:30 PM onwards. Meanwhile, the judges and the timekeepers will evaluate scores to arrive at the results.
- Prize distribution will be conducted after lunch.
- There will be no RF in this event.
- The event will wrap up at 2:30 PM. Please plan to depart by this time.
- There are 3 competition categories (based on age group):
- C1: 19 to 30 years
- C2: 30 to 60 years
- C3: 60+ years
- There are 3 prizes per category: Therefore, there are 9 prizes to be won.
- The decision of the judges and the organizing committee will be final.
- The registration fee for participants is ₹500 per individual; this includes the registration kit, breakfast, and a vegetarian lunch. An accompanying person (limited to a maximum of 2 per participant), not participating, pays ₹250 per person; this covers only breakfast and vegetarian lunch. Outstation participants pay only ₹100; this includes the registration kit, breakfast, and a vegetarian lunch.
- No on-spot registration is allowed.
The competition
- Each participant will be provided with an RFID tag during registration.
- Participants will be flagged off individually from the Start Point at 2-minute intervals.
- There will be three transmitters (foxes) to hunt. Each participant must hunt the first, second, and third transmitters, and log his/ her hunt by tapping their RFID card on the RFID reader placed near each fox.
- The first and the second transmitters will Tx on 144.700 MHz at every alternate minute.
- The first transmitter will send a 30-second tone followed by CW: MOE (da-da, da-da-da, dit).
- The second transmitter will send a 30-second tone followed by a CW: MOI (da-da, da-da-da, di-dit).
- The third transmitter, which is the Finish point, will Tx on 144.600 MHz.
- The third transmitter will send a 30-second tone followed by a CW: MO (da-da, da-da-da) every minute.
- The first and second transmitters can be hunted in any sequence but the third transmitter (Finish) must be the last one to be logged.
- After hunting all three foxes and logging the entry, participants are requested to return to the registration area to hand over their RFID cards.
- The frequency of 145.000 MHz will be used only for emergencies and for brief announcements.
Disqualification rules
- Participants who lose their RFID card shall be disqualified.
- Participants shall remain quiet and neither interfere nor supply any information (verbally or via gestures) to fellow participants until the competition concludes. There will be observers monitoring.
- If a participant is found using a mobile phone to share any information, he/ she shall be disqualified. Mobile phone usage is only allowed in case of medical emergencies.
- Attempts to gain any information, beyond that provided during the briefing, are not permitted before and during the competition.
- A participant who breaks any rule, or who benefits from the breaking of any rule, shall be disqualified.
Registered Participants
Names in italicized text are outstation participants.
The number following ‘+’ is the count of persons accompanying the participant.
* indicates non-participant registration.
Category C1: (age 19 to 30 years)
- Sujay Sreedhar A (VU3CCL)
- Chandana B Venkatesh (SWL)
- Tarun Kumar M (VU3BWI)
- Vishnu Prasath R (VU3CVA)
- Swetha (VU3BIZ)
- Suhruth M V Jamadagni (VU2YUW)
Category C2: (age 30+ to 60 years)
- Guruprasad Belthur (VU3GWN)
- Mohammed Asif Khan (VU3JVY)
- Arvind Nayak (VU3CIQ) + 1
- Dilip Sharma (VU3BOM)
- Mohammad Ali Jinnah (VU3XMA)
- Jagannathan C J (VU3JIM)
- Vinay T J (VU3TDU)
- Kiran Kumar (VU3PKE) + 2
- Karthikeyan N (VU3CFV)
- Srivatsa (VU3VFS)
- Keerthy (VU3KCA)
- Naveen (VU3NEO)
- Renu Kshirsagar (VU3CQM)
- NitinKumar Muttin (VU3TYG)
- Chaya Girimaji (VU3HBL)
- Somashekhar Kummur (VU3HCJ)
- Arnab Sen (VU2CMV)
- Ramesh (VU3VRL)
- Lt. Col. Oommen T Jacob (VU3EWN) + 1
- Sreedhar (VU3GLS) + 1
- Shyamsundar Hegde (VU3UZD)
Category C2: (30+ to 60 years age)
- Sivaram T (VU3CBQ)
- Manjunatha R (VU3CJM)
- Krishna Kumar (VU2YUU)
- Hariharan Srinivasan (VU3HEA) + 1
- Lt. Col. Narendra A Divekar, SM (VU3LVM)
- Balaji (VU3PZA) + 1
- Naresh Kumar Nagesh (VU3XCW)
- Dr. Varghese P S (VU3CDQ) + 1
- Prasanna (VU2VSJ)
- Sachin K (VU2LYE)
- Mohan K (VU3TGC)
- Mohanbabu K (VU3FKA)
- Subbaraman (VU2TKX)
- Dharmendra Rao Jadhav (VU2VDR)
- Shilpa Manjunath (VU3FCE)
- Praveen (VU2PGB)
- Praveen M K (VU3UJW) + 1
- B V S Sastry (SWL) *
- Manoj Thazhepurayil (VU3MDO)
- Mahesh M B (VU2YYA) + 2
- Emil Paul (VU2YUN)
Category C3: (age 60+ years)
- Ram Mohan G. (VU2GRM)
- B Suresh Kumar (VU3HDP) + 1
- Rajesh Sanghrajka (VU2RPS)
- Madhukar (VU2MUD)
- Cdr. (R) M S Raghunath (VU2MYS)
- Balachandra Babu T (VU3XEB)
- Balavant Kulkarni (VU2BRT) + 1
- Govind Girimaji (VU2GGM)
- Ramesh Kumar K G (VU2LU)
- Subramani B A (VU2WMY)
- Srikanth (VU2GSM)
- Paramesha G (VU3VXT)
- Gandhi (VU2MBA)
- Marcus (VU2VTM)
- Dr. Benny Kuriakose (VU2MZN)
- Raghavi (VU3LCE) + 1
- Vijay K Yadav (VU2YVK)
- Dr. Kiran M B (VU2MIK) + 1
Sponsors
- Vinsurwaves
- Amateur Radio Society of India (ARSI)
- BARC Members: Cdr. (R) Raghunath M. S. (VU2MYS); Vijay Kumar Yadav (VU2YVK); Ram Mohan G. (VU2GRM); Shyamsunder Hegde (VU3UZD); Arvind Nayak (VU3CIQ).
Acknowledgments
- BARC thanks Dr Annie Besant Scouts and Guides Training and Camping Centre, Doddaballapur, for allowing us to use the park for this event.
- BARC thanks JimBeam ChronoComs (JBCC) for the fox transmitters and for being the primary timekeepers of the competition.
- BARC thanks VU3CQM, OM Renu, for being the alternate timekeeper of the competition.
- BARC thanks VU3JBA, OM Soms (and his venture ARDF India), for the support in organizing this competition.
- BARC thanks Nth Adventure for providing a custom map of the park to promote map reading and orienteering activity and for their interest in joining this event.