A Thrilling Adventure : 2010 MARS Chennai Foxhunt

The MARS (Madras Amateur Radio Society) Fox Hunt was conducted today 28.02.10/Sunday at Chennai. Many teams participated in the event which began in the morning at 8:00 am with the fox making an announcement for commencement and then fox started howling the tone in fox frequency 144.900 Mhz. The timeframe target for locating the fox was 8:00 am to 12:00 am and indicated distance was 60 Kms line of sight from city “0” stone.

The tools of the trade, straight out of a 007 BOND movie, beam antenna, compass , VHF Transceiver etc being kept ready at startpoint for taking initial direction bearning.


The fox tone was given for 60 sec on & 240 sec off and the power was reduced from 50/25 W in the beginning hours to 500 MW by the end of the hunt. Most of the teams started the fox hunt from City/outskirts and then signals indicated West/South West towards Tambaram/GST Road direction. But since signal tracking is a real skill and is influenced by so much extraneous environmental factors, the fox signal proved very elusive and erratic.

The veteran YAESU handy tuned to the fox frequency.

Team taking intermittent bearing on hilltop.

5 teams participated in this years MARS foxhunt as below.

Team 1 : VU2DH , SWL Vipin Shankar , SWL Satheesh & VU3UBR
Team 2 : VU2JA, VU2ABS, VU2GPS, VU2VWR
Team 3 : VU3RGK, VU3STJ, VU2LSW , VU2DNY
Team 4 : VU2DRK , VU3MOA , VU3USI
Team 5 : VU3WIB , SWL

Checking signals in the middle of an overbridge.

But the fox signal proved very elusive with conflicting signal strengths as well as directions as time passed . After 12:00 pm /4 hours an announcement was made that since nobody could locate the fox, the hunt would be extended for another 30 minutes.

By this time most of the teams were within 5 Kms radius of the fox and were into drastic measures including walking on hot dry Palar river bed, climbing up a stone quarry hill , use bikes to check on smaller trails, rummaging through farm houses etc , but all this did not yield anything.

Finally close to 12: 30 PM the fox location was announced as “Pazhaya Seevaram Sri Lakshmi Narasimhaswamy Temple” which was a hilltop temple shrine location on the banks of Palar River and on Chengalpattu-Kanchipuram road at an approx 60 kms to 75 Kms direct road drive distance from Chennai depending on the route you take . No team managed to catch the fox this time even after the time extension . The fox hole was at an approx line of sight distance of 56.6 Kms from Chennai “0” stone point (source - Wikimapia software).

The "Fox Den"/hilltop marked in square as seen in this sattelite aimage with adjacent shrub jungle/stairs/hills etc.

Participants had to climb up many steps leading to the "Fox Den" at the top of the hill .

The "Fox Hole"

The elusive fox was VU2GHX Madhavan . Within 5 to 10 min of the fox locaton announcement most teams reached the spot.

Anyways it was real fun as after all its for the love of HAM hobby that everybody set aside a whole good Sunday and made this trip . All teams had their own moments of fun , joy, tension, anger etc which all made the whole foxhunt a thrilling and challenging experience for one and all, especially for the first timers. Thanks to the MARS organising team for conducting this event again after a gap of couple of years. All HAMS hope the Chennai Foxhunt becomes an annual event moving forward.

A special mention of VU3WIB (Right) who's spirit & love for the hobby really needs to appreciated as he travelled the entire journey of 150+ Kms with rig/beam on a two wheeler with an SWL.

A good lunch session/getogether was arranged by MARS for all the participants near to the fox den which was appreciated and relished by all. The only regret was that all the day’s hard hunting by teams didn’t yield any prizes to take home, only good memories of this unique experience .

For full photo profile pls click here.

Anybody else having more photos/something to be added to the story board pls send across.

ChennaiHamsBlogspot Team

Tribute to VU2 RF "Ranga"

That familiar old but steady voice on Chennai VHF net daily "Vu2 Romeo Foxtrot" has become silent key & would'nt be heard anymore . Vu2RF handle "Ranga" passed away today morning in Chennai after a brief hospitalization . Ranga was among the seniormost HAM's in CHENNAI and used to attend all HAM related meetings in and around the city inspite of his old age .

He always has cheerful advice for the younger lot. As per old timers a very sincere and kind radio amateur who was always willing to help anyone, Ranga got his ticket in 1972 and has been a HAM for past 30+ years. He was initially in Calcutta and later moved to Chennai and settled out. He was active on HF/VHF and was a very good homebrewer and has contributed many test equipments to the hobby.

The last HAM meet he attended in Chennai was the MARS(Madras Amateur Radio Society) monthly meeting held on Jan 26th 2010. All Chennai HAMS salute this great HAM and his contributions to the hobby, we are sure he would be remembered always as a nice person we knew and who chrished being a HAM.

Mahabalipuram Eyeball 2010 : A memorable Ham-together

The Gala event in progress.

Cherished by all HAMS & among the popular events in VUland, Mahabalipuram Eyeball meet 2010 was conducted today at TTDC Resort near Chennai and turned outto be a huge success. The meet organized by the untiring efforts of OM Vittal VU2 VIT and his team had 101 participants from all four South Indian states belonging to different walks of Life, but offcourse united by the loave for radio waves.

Thanks to the entire team for the wonderful location TTDC resort & AC conference hall . Om Santhanam VU2 YFS welcomed the gathering. One minute silence was observed for the sake of departed souls who passed away in the past year. OmVU2DH Devadas honoured VU2 PCP and VU2 VIT for their wonderful contribution through the years to Hamdom .

Few senior hams like VU2 UR, VU2QM, VU2 RVK were felicitated by VU2 VIT. A VHF handheld donated to the Yercaud Repeater(TCD repeater Maintenance fund) was auctioned in a very innovative american way on the floor by VU2 DRK and VU2DH.

A life time Achievement Award by ARSI was given to SWL T.K.Vishwanathan, which was presented to him by ARSI President VU2GMN . The details of the astonishing achievement by this swl was narrated by Vu2 UR.

VU2GUR gave very good narration about satellite communication and a notable new system of a dipole which was really very interesting. VU2 LF, VU3 MII, VU2 ABS, VU2 PCP had compact stalls full of exciting ham stuffand was a real crowd puller.

VU2PTR narrated about his new venture PTR 2K 10 , a 50 watt transmitter set assembled by him in his own clean and compact construction way. It was astonishing to note that cost is less than Rs. 2500/ even though it was finished in a very good commercial manner.






VU2DH, VU3VWR, VU2VIT & VU2DRK

VU3RGK with his homebrewed sattelite communication/UHF antenna.

VU2PCP with his homebrewed VHF/UHF beams and slim jim antennas.

The following from chennai hams participated apart from HAMS/SWL's from various other south Indian states including Kerala/Karnataka/AndraPradesh:

VU2GMN, VU2 DRK, VU2UU, VU3 WIB, VU3 MSZ, VU2 VIT, VU2 BOA, VU3 STJ, VU3 MES, VU3MII, VU2 RDX, VU2 PTR, VU3 GGK, VU2 GHX, VU2 DH, VU3 USI, VU2 AKW, VU3MOA, VU2 KLS, VU2 CMR, VU2 TTL, VU2 GWH, VU2 SBU, VU3 VWR, VU2 ABS, VU2 PIY, VU2 AKW, VU2 SDU, VU2 WYR, VU2 UBR, VU2 KBX, VU3 RGK, VU2ISR, VU2 UMX, VU2 LF, VU3 MPK, VU2 YNT, VU3 INA, VU2 LSW, VU2 DNY, VU2GMS, VU2 GPS, VU2 ATN, VU2 DPN, SWL ARULRAJ, SWL, VELMURUGAN, SWL ASHOK, SWL VIPIN SHANKAR.

Full Photo Album pls click below links.

Mahams 2010 , PhotoAlbum contributed by VU2DPN.

Mahams 2010 , PhotoAlbum with Narration contributed by VU2LSW(Narayan Rao).

CLICK TO VIEW A SHORT VIDEO ON MAHAMS 2010.

Anyone wishing to contribute further photos/storyboard for the Maham 2010, pls send by e-mail and it will be added into this article string.

Thanks and Regards

ChennaiHamsBlogspot Team

HAM Demo at Chennai Trekking Club's gala event at Chennai on March 6th 2010

Vu2ABS Arvind would be conducting a workshop on Ham Radio & emergency radio communications as part of the gala trekking event "Trek Polama" which is to be conducted on March 6th 2010 at Anna Nagar,Chennai by Chennai Trekking Club.

Chennai Trekking Club or CTC which is based in Chennai was established on February 22, 2008 by a small group of trekking enthusiasts. It started as a dozen member club grew into a big non-profit organization that strives to encourage trekking as an organized sport. CTC organizes treks mainly in and around South India. It also organizes other activities like photography tours, one day hikes, workshops on navigation using GPS, treks for a social cause and walks for charity. CTC has organized more than 100 treks.

It has more than 3500 members and more than 10 people joining every day. CTC has also taken up several nature conservation/environment protection initiatives also as its entire backbone is nature's gifts in the form of pristine forests. Since most of the trekking happens in remote jungles , Ham radio will be very useful during treks where there is no cell coverage and becomes very essential, especially during emergencies. In December 2009, Vu2ABS had given a presentation to group of 50 CTC members about ham radio, which was very well received and many are interested in becoming active hams .

To Register for the March 6th Event Pls click here.

More info on CTC click here or http://www.chennaitrekkers.org/

All HAM Enthusiasts are welcome to join the event.