ARDF Team USA Wants You!

de W1AW

Applications from competitors now are being accepted for the first major Amateur Radio direction finding event on US soil. ARRL ARDF Coordinator Joe Moell, K0OV reports that preparations are in full swing for the first International Amateur Radio Union Region 2 ARDF Championships in August. The competition will be part of the sixth biennial Friendship Radiosports Games held in Portland, Oregon, and sponsored by the Friendship Amateur Radio Society.

Those selected for Team USA 1999 will vie for medals against foxtailers from Canada, Russia, and Japan, and possibly other countries. Practice and training events are held August 9 and 10, followed the next two days by the official 2-meter and 80-meter competitions. A closing banquet will be held August 13.

Foxhunters taking off at the start of a hunt.

``You don't have to be an athlete or a marathoner,'' Moell says. ``It's true that some gold medalists in the last World Championships bagged five fox transmitters in 45 minutes on a 8-kilometer course (about a 9 minute-per-mile pace), but that's the exception, not the rule.'' He says the median times for the 2-meter hunt at the last World Championships in Hungary ranged from 75 to 95 minutes in the five age/gender divisions. ``Nineteen minutes per mile sounds much easier, doesn't it?'' Moell said. ``It's often possible to briskly walk the course and still finish in plenty of time, if you are efficient at RDF.''

The finish line at the ARDF World Championships 1996.

To learn more about the rules and suitable equipment and to obtain an application form for Team USA, visit Moell's Web site at http://members.aol.com/homingin/.

Applicants should complete the form and return via e-mail to homingin@aol.com. Moell also suggests making hard copies of the form to hand out at your local foxhunts. Hard copies can be mailed to Moell at PO Box 2508, Fullerton, CA 92837.

Most ARDF Team USA members also are hams, but an Amateur Radio ticket is not mandatory. ``Let others in your family try out your ARDF equipment as you practice,'' Moell recommends. ``Maybe they will decide to join in the fun.''