International Style Foxhunting
Comes to the Americas

No Cars Needed

If you go to a former Soviet Union country, you probably won't hear many voices on the two-meter band. You can count the Russian cities with VHF ham repeaters on the fingers of one hand. But wherever you go in that part of the world, there is a good chance that you can hear the beeping transmissions of a two-meter foxhunt. The hunters are looking for five transmitters (called foxes) in a large area, usually woodlands. They have to run several kilometers to find them all. They carry maps and compasses and try to keep track of their location at all times, much like classic orienteering.

Compared to American-style mobile T-hunts, an international-rules on-foot foxhunt is usually a much more formal event. It takes preparation and on-site staffing to put on the championships. On the other hand, radio-orienteering practice sessions can be very informal. Setups for practice can be done by just one or two hams.

Uniform Rules for All Nations

The detailed IARU document "Rules for Championships in Amateur Radio Direction Finding" is maintained by IARU's ARDF Working Group, comprising delegates from foxhunting countries around the world. It calls for five low-power (0.25 to 1.5 watt) foxes, automatically transmitting one after another (never at the same time) on the same frequency for exactly one minute each. Contestants attempt to locate as many as possible and get to the finish within the time limit, carrying a card to mark with the unique punches located at each fox. (Electronic registration/scoring systems are also allowed.) The start and finish may be at the same place, but usually they are at widely spaced points of the course. Both points are plainly marked on the map, a triangle for start and concentric circles for finish.

Contestants are individually timed. They start at intervals, usually every five minutes, coinciding with the start of fox #1 transmissions. This scatters the contestants on the course to minimize "follow the leader" problems. Winners are determined primarily by the number of transmitters found and secondarily by elapsed time.

Foxhunting is a map and compass exercise as well as a test of direction-finding skill. Successful hunters pay careful attention to their own location and the bearings to all foxes at all times, plotting them on detailed orienteering maps provided by the organizers. They know that if they miss a fox bearing, they must wait four minutes to hear that fox again. They also eye their watches, since exceeding the time limit (usually two to three hours) means disqualification. In other words, it is better to return under the limit with only one fox found than to find all five but take one minute over the limit. Each target transmitter has a distinctive identification, sent continuously in CW or MCW. Even without knowing Morse Code, it is easy to identify the individual foxes.

Under current IARU rules, all competitors use the same venue and search for the same foxes, but there are nine age/gender categories. Only one category (M21) is required to find all five. Others need to find only three or four foxes; the designated ones are different for each category. Foxes may be found in any order. Here are the categories and number of foxes to be found:

   M19 - Males ages 19 and younger, 4 foxes
   M21 - Males of any age, 5 foxes
   M40 - Males ages 40 and older, 4 foxes
   M50 - Males ages 50 and older, 4 foxes
   M60 - Males ages 60 and older, 3 foxes
   D19 - Females ages 19 and younger, 4 foxes
   D21 - Females of any age, 4 foxes
   D35 - Females ages 35 and older, 4 foxes
   D50 - Females ages 50 and older, 3 foxes

Transmitters must be at least 400 meters apart, with a total optimum-route course distance of 6 to 10 kilometers. Elevation change should not exceed 200 meters. The first fox should be at least 750 meters from the start. A prominent red and white prism (orienteering flag) may be located close to each IARU fox transmitter for visual identification. A homing fox at the finish line transmits continuously on a separate frequency to aid competitors who get lost. Two meter foxes in European and Asian IARU championships use AM with tone modulation, but FM tones are often used in North America. There is also a separate contest on a different day in all age/gender catetories on 80 meters, with keyed CW transmitters. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded in each age/gender category, individual and team, for both bands.

In about 30 countries where international-style foxhunting is popular, there are local and wider area events, leading up to annual national championships. Winners of these events are eligible to participate in multi-nation championships. In even-numbered years, one nation hosts the World Championships. Each country entering the World Championships may field one team of up to three contestants in each category. Team members are not allowed to help one another; Course Marshals are alert for violations. In odd-numbered years, IARU encourages each of the three regions to hold Regional Championships, hosted by countries in the individual regions.

For local competitions and practice sessions, IARU's rules can be modified as appropriate. For instance, no age categories are necessary if there are only a few participants. Smaller venues, fewer fox transmitters, and different timing may also be used.

Using The Right Terms

In typical American mobile transmitter hunts, the competitors travel most of the distance in their cars, with perhaps a short on-foot search (called a sniff) at the end. In southern California and a few other places, these events are called T-hunts and the device being searched for is the hidden T. Elsewhere in the USA, they are called foxhunts, bunny hunts or rabbit hunts.

Though done with completely different rules, international-style RDF contesting is also frequently called foxhunting. Other names for this on-foot sport are fox-teering, fox-tailing, radio-orienteering and ARDF (for Amateur Radio Direction Finding).

Because it is both a mental and physical challenge, ARDF appeals to both "techies" and "jocks" of all ages. It takes skill to get proper bearings, plot them, set a course and navigate through the woods. It takes physical conditioning to do it faster than your fellow competitors. Perhaps you or a fellow club member have what it takes to become a champion. Your children and grandchildren might, too. And what about your local Scout troop? Remember, a ham license is not required to receive and track fox signals.

You don't have to be a combination of rocket scientist and marathoner to have foxtailing fun. There is a lot of trotting, walking and pausing on the course, plus a lot of head-scratching when the bearings don't to make sense. There is also immense satisfaction for each person who completes the course, no matter how long it takes. If ARDF activities have begun in your area, get involved. If they have not started yet, get the ball rolling by talking to your club about it and become a local ARDF Point of Contact. Send e-mail to the USA's ARDF Coordinator Joe Moell KØOV to get on the PoC list. If you live in Canada, contact ARDF Coordinator Joe Young VE7BFK. If you are in another country of North or South America besides USA and Canada, contact IARU Region 2 ARDF Coordinator Dale Hunt WB6BYU.

The History of ARDF In North America

The stateside development of ARDF has been surprisingly rapid. Before August 1999, only one formal multi-national foxhunt had ever been held on US soil. It was put on by the Friendship Amateur Radio Society (FARS) of Portland, Oregon in May 1991. FARS came into being as the result of a Sister Cities arrangement between Portland and Khabarovsk, a similar-sized city in Asiatic Russia. Ham operators of Khabarovsk invited a delegation of Portland hams to their homeland in 1989 for a series of radiosporting events, including a European/Asian style foxhunt. The experienced Russians won, of course. Everyone had so much fun that it was decided to hold future Friendship Games every two years.

Portland hams reciprocated by putting on the second Friendship Radiosport Games (FRG) in their city. Read Homing In for September 1991 and "Showdown in Portland" in the November 1991 issue of 73 Amateur Radio Today Magazine for firsthand reports on FRG-91. Kevin Kelly N6QAB won the individual foxhunt championship and the USA Red Team (KA7NOO, KC7MZ, WB6JGV) from Washington won the team competition.

Victoria, BC Canada, another Khabarovsk sister city, hosted the next Friendship Games gathering in 1993. By now, there were FARS chapters in USA, Russia, Japan, and Canada. Read October 1993 Homing In for all the details of FRG-93. The USA did not win this time.

The 1995 Friendship Games returned to Khabarovsk, with participants from all four countries again in attendance. The story is in Homing In for December 1996.

Japan hosted the Games in 1997. Because the primary activity of Japan's host club is foxhunting, the foxhunt was the main event. It was fully covered in Homing In for January 1998.

The Friendship Games gave us good ARDF experience, but they were not IARU-sanctioned events. In 1996, Kevin Kelly N6QAB was the first stateside ham to participate in an IARU radio-orienteering contest when he traveled to the Region 3 Championships in Townsville, Australia. He recounted his experiences in the Homing In column for December 1996. The photos above are from that event, courtesy of Kevin and his wife Susan.

Interest in radio-orienteering was rekindled among Californians in 1995. Hamcon/Foxhunt-95 was staged at the ARRL Southwestern Division convention that year. Then a formal foxhunt was a feature of the 1996 West Coast VHF/UHF Conference. For details of Hamcon/Foxhunt-95 and the 1996 Conference hunt, read Homing In for December 1995 and January 1996.

In fall 1997, a small group of hams across the USA and Canada formed the North American ARDF Organizing Task Force to promote the sport. The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) formally recognized this increasing interest at its January 1998 meeting of the Board of Directors. ARRL's President was authorized to appoint an ARDF Coordinator (Joe Moell KØOV) to work with hams here in the USA and abroad to promote the sport and arrange for competitions.

E-mail and personal contacts between the ARDF Coordinator, the Task Force members, and other ARDF enthusiasts around the world led to an invitation for our presence at the 1998 IARU ARDF World Championships in Hungary. The call for participation went out and six persons responded. After several informal local foxhunting practice sessions and a formal training event in southern California, they were ready for the big September event. All had a great time in Hungary. They learned a great deal about techniques used by foxtailing winners and about the organization of ARDF championship events. You can read all the details in two feature articles: "The USA Takes on the World Foxhunting Championships." by Joe Moell KØOV in the March 1999 issue of CQ VHF Magazine and "Amateur Radio Direction Finding--The 1998 IARU World Championships" by Dale Hunt WB6BYU in the May 1999 issue of QST Magazine. Homing In for January 1999 also covered this event.

Later that month, the IARU Region 2 Plenary Conference in Venezuela approved a request by FARS to include IARU Region 2 ARDF Championship foxhunts as part of the 1999 Friendship Radiosport Games (FRG-99) in Portland, Oregon, staged during the second week of August 1999. Dale Hunt WB6BYU, Team Leader for the Hungary trip, agreed to be Foxhunt Chair for this event. In June 1999, Joe Moell KØOV was appointed as the first IARU Region 2 ARDF Coordinator.

The first IARU Region 2 ARDF Championships in Portland brought hams from six European and Asian countries to take on fifteen Team USA members and five Team Canada members representing Region 2. In addition to the two-meter foxhunt, the first-ever multi-nation 80-meter foxhunt in the Western Hemisphere took place there. V.I.P attendees included Tom Atkins VE3CDM, IARU Region 2 President and Rik Strobbe ON7YD, Interim Chair of IARU Region 1 ARDF Working Group. Homing In for October 1999 covered these historic Championships in detail.

With the successful Portland event as impetus, year 2000 was much more active for ARDF in the USA. Dozens of two-meter practice on-foot hunts took place from California to North Carolina, and several places in between. Many of these sessions helped prepare Team USA members for the 2000 ARDF World Championships (WCs). The Team USA Qualifying Runs, held June 3-4 in southern California, had the longest 2-meter and 80-meter ARDF courses in North America to date. Twelve persons represented USA at the ARDF World Championships in Nanjing, China during October 2000. They ranged in age from 15 to 59. Dale Hunt WB6BYU became the first person from the Western Hemisphere ever to serve on the International Jury at the ARDF WCs. Read more about the 2000 WCs in Homing In for January 2001.

Even more ARDF activity occurred in the USA during 2001, including the First USA ARDF Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Over 40 radio-orienteers from the USA, Australia, China and Ukraine took to the courses. Homing In for February 2001 and ARRL's QST Magazine for May 2001 had detailed pre-event articles. Follow-up Homing In articles were in the December 2001 and January 2002 issues of 73 Magazine.  Some USA ARDF enthusiasts also participated in the Friendship Games foxhunt in Victoria, BC during the week after the Albuquerque events.

Dale Hunt WB6BYU was appointed to be IARU Region 2 ARDF Coordinator in October 2001, replacing Joe Moell KØOV who resigned to concentrate on stateside ARDF development as USA ARDF Coordinator.

In April 2002, the Georgia Orienteering Club hosted the Second USA ARDF Championships. Read all about it in Homing In for July and August 2002. The Championships were also featured as a cover article in Monitoring Times magazine for July 2002. Members of Team USA 2002 were selected from the best performers at this event and at the 2001 Albuquerque hunts. These eleven Team USA competitors and one International Jury member traveled to Slovakia during the first week of September for the 2002 ARDF World Championships. USA's performance was the best ever, including one fourth place and one fifth place in the individual standings. Homing In covered our WC participation in the November and December 2002 installments.

The Third USA ARDF Championships took place near Cincinnati, Ohio from July 30 through August 3, 2003, hosted by the OH-KY-IN Amateur Radio Club. It was also designated as the Second IARU Region 2 ARDF Championships. Detailed coverage was in Homing In for Winter 2004, my first column after the move to CQ VHF Magazine.

Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club in California hosted the Fourth USA ARDF Championships, June 16 - 19, 2004. Homing In for Summer 2004 covered some unique aspects of these events, including the first use of electronic scoring in our national championships. This took place just in time for final selection of ARDF Team USA 2004 members, who traveled to Brno in the Czech Republic for the 12th ARDF World Championships in September. USA's team positions were filled based on performances in the 2004 events in California and the 2003 events in Ohio. USA also sent two persons to participate in the international jury at the World Championships.

The Fifth USA ARDF Championships and Third IARU Region 2 Championships returned to Albuquerque, New Mexico during the first week of August, 2005, with participants from USA, Australia, Kazakhstan and the Czech Republic.

The Sixth USA ARDF Championships took place April 7 - 9, 2006 in Raleigh, North Carolina, after which the members of ARDF Team USA 2006 were selected. In September, the team traveled to Bulgaria for the 13th ARDF World Championships, where Nadia Scharlau brought home USA's first World Championships medal.

The Seventh USA ARDF Championships and Fourth IARU Region 2 Championships will be September 14 - 16, 2007 near Lake Tahoe, which is on the California/Nevada border.

Keep checking this Homing In site for the latest radio-orienteering news for the USA and all of North America.

Homing In columns on ARDF by Joe Moell KØOV in 73 Magazine (1988-2003) and CQ VHF Magazine (Since 2004)

• June 1991 -- Hunting for the Gold
  
• September 1991 -- Foxhunters Invade Oregon
  
• December 1991 -- RDF Spans the Globe
  
• April 1992 -- Foxhunt Fame Awaits You
  
• July 1992 -- RDF Opportunities Abroad and at Home
  
• October 1993 -- Foxhunt Fun at the Friendship Games
  
• December 1995 -- Foxhunting's Wide World
  
• January 1996 -- More About Hamcon/Foxhunt-95
  
• April 1996 -- Foxhunting the European Way
  
• August 1996 -- Bringing ARDF To Your Town
  
• September 1996 -- Foxhunt Day, Step By Step
  
• December 1996 -- Globetrotting Foxhunters
  
• January 1997 -- A Foxhunting Jamboree
  
• April 1997 -- New Ideas Never Cease
  
• December 1997 -- New Sporting Goods for Foxhunting
  
• January 1998 -- FARS, Friendship and Foxhunting
  
• March 1998 -- Radio Foxes Don't Howl
  
• June 1998 -- ARDF is Off and Running
  
• November 1998 -- Practice, Education and Fun
  
• January 1999 -- A Banner Year, More to Come
  
• May 1999 -- Dayton, Portland and South Texas
  
• October 1999 -- City of Roses...and Foxes
  
• April 2000 -- ARDF Takes Off in 2000
  
• October 2000 -- USA Foxhunting Championships 2001 -- Start Planning!
  
• November 2000 -- 80m ARDF Comes to America
  
• January 2001 -- A New Millennium of Foxhunting
  
• February 2001 -- Albuquerque Invites the World to Foxhunt
  
• December 2001 -- Triumph in the Land of Enchantment
  
• January 2002 -- The World Comes to Duke City
  
• April 2002 -- USA Foxhunters Take On the World
  
• July 2002 -- Peak Performances in Pine Mountain
  
• August 2002 -- USA ARDF Championships 2002, Part 2
  
• November 2002 -- From Radio Camp to the World Championships
  
• December 2002 -- ARDF World Championships 2002, Part 2
  
• April 2003 -- Two New Tools for Foxhunting
  
• Winter 2004 -- Champion Foxhunters Gather in the Buckeye State
  
• Summer 2004 -- ARDF Takes Hold -- More Progress and Innovation
  
• Winter 2005 -- Win Foxhunting Prizes, Mobile or On Foot
• Fall 2006 -- Medals and More at the National and World ARDF Championships

Other articles

• Baldwin, Richard, "Amateur Radio Direction Finding in China," QST Magazine, March 1994, page 22

• Boyd, Jerry and Mileshosky, Brian, "2001 USA Direction Finding Championships," QST Magazine, March 2002

• Holter, Nicolai, "Radio Foxhunting in Europe," QST Magazine, August 1976, page 53 and November 1976, page 43

• Hunt, Dale, "Amateur Radio Direction Finding: The 1998 IARU World Championships," QST Magazine, May 1999, page 28

• Moell, Joe, "World Class Foxhunting Comes to America," CQ VHF Magazine, October 1996, page 16

• Moell, Joe, "The USA Takes on the World Foxhunting Championships," CQ VHF Magazine, March 1999, page 12

• Moell, Joe, "Amateur Radio Direction Finding: USA Holds Its First National Championships," QST Magazine, May 2001, page 57

• Sumner, David, "Direction Finding, European Style," QST Magazine, September 1978, page 38

• Titterington, Bob, "ARDF Finds Its Direction," RadComm (RSGB), April 2005, page 48

• Vigil, Sam, "The US 2004 ARDF Championship: A Beginner's Adventures," CQ Magazine, November 2004, page 44

Book

• Moell and Curlee, TRANSMITTER HUNTING---Radio Direction Finding Simplified, Tab/McGraw-Hill #2701, Chapter 16

The above references will increase your understanding of international style ARDF and help you plan hunts in your area. For technical and equipment ARDF references, see the Equipment Ideas for Radio-Orienteering page at this site.

• Region 1 - Europe, Africa, the countries of the former Soviet Union, Mongolia, and the Middle East except Iran  (Rainer Floesser DL5NBZ)

• Region 2 - North, South and Central America, the Caribbean, Hawaii, Midway and Johnston Island  (Dale Hunt WB6BYU)

• Region 3 - The remainder of Asia and Oceania not included above  (Yoshio Arisaka JA1HQG)

IARU's headquarters (the International Secretariat) is located at the ARRL building in Newington, Connecticut, USA. The current IARU President is Larry Price W4RA. Presiding over Region 2 is Rod Stafford W6ROD.

Go to Radio-Orienteering in southern California -- Announcements of upcoming demonstration/practice sessions and results of recent local events

Go to Equipment Ideas for Radio-Orienteering -- Simple and inexpensive receiving and transmitting solutions

Go to Latest Championship Foxhunting News -- Stories of recent multi-nation ARDF events and announcements of upcoming ones

Go to Electronic Scoring for ARDF -- What it is, how it works, and why it's better than pin punching

Go to Foxhunting for Scouts -- Let's get the kids involved

Go to Try ARDF on 80 Meters. -- The "other" foxhunting band

Go to Extenders Aid Handicapped Foxhunters -- A novel way to include persons with disabilities

Back to the Homing In home page

This page updated 13 May 2007