Another 'Top Evening', this time from Chris M1EEV.

The world of Direction Finding is one often shrouded in mystery, but last night Chris went to a lot of trouble to show everyone just what is available in terms of the range of equipment for both passive and active antennas, and 'his take' on each piece of gear from personal experience.  Secondly .. just how easy it is to take part.

Chris made the point that like everything we do in life .. the more you do it .. the better you become.  DF is not asking a piece of kit to tell you where the fox is ! because it won't !! but instead what it will do is tell you where the RF is coming from .. and leave you to make judgments from your experience if it is a true signal or a reflection .. coming from 92 degrees or 272 degrees etc.

It is this important human factor which makes DF interesting, because you can have a team with a car full of electronics and the members not know how to interpret the data.  A team with a simple HB9CV, attenuator and understanding of their equipment can often out perform them.  This has been proved many times in the rather more tricky North Wales DF Hunt which Tom G4BKF organises bi-annually on behalf of the Club.

Thanks to this 'human factor' it is important for everyone to appreciate that they don't need car loads of fancy kit to take part.  Anyone can join in and with some experience with their kit .. enjoy the sport on an almost equal footing.

Our next DF Hunt is a Practice DF on Wednesday 27th May .. starting 8pm from the Lay-by on the A540 just north or Heswall.  You need a 2m radio (preferably with an analogue meter) on 145.300MHz, an HB9CV, and if possible some attenuation.  The Landranger Ordinance Survey Map No. 108 will cover the area.

It's great fun, and finishes at a D&W with the hostelry nominated about 9pm on the frequency by the fox.

Thanks for an excellent night Chris.