Author: Steve

Our first fox hunt at Ida Lee Park was awesome. With temperatures in the 70s we got our steps for the day in while hardly breaking a sweat.

Three foxes were deployed, but one wasn’t transmitting (turns out it was most likely operator error who turned the switch off vs. on).

5 club members participated:

• Steve KS1G
• Ron KQ4IBI
• Mike KO4ANI
• Bryce KC6T
• Steve N4RAF

After a brief intro, the fox hunters started hunting. One hunter was able to locate the 2 foxes in about 20 minutes. The other hunters took a bit longer.

Some lessons:

• Turn on da fox
• Make sure the frequencies sent out match the foxes
• Rocks really do block RF
• Mixing up deployment formats keeps the hunters on their toes – one in an ammo can, another a small pouch in a tall patch of grass and the inactive one up in a tree
• Make sure your radio is on the right frequency for the fox you are hunting
• Antennas on the foxes make a difference in how well hunters can receive them both on primary freq and 3rd harmonic
• Turn the power up on the foxes

Thanks all for coming out and enjoying the morning. We’ll be scheduling another one in late Oct / Early Nov.

Yesterday, 23 Aug, we supported the Reston Bike Club (RBC) Ken Thompson Reston Century.

It was beautiful day in the mid-80s with nice puffy clouds providing some breaks from the sun with a light breeze. The 100 milers arriving at Lovettsville didn’t even seem to be breaking a sweat.

With about 700 riders participating, 16 members of the club provided situational awareness and communications support to the race directors team from 5:30 am to 5 pm at the ride start/finish, 4 rest stops and SAG vehicles.

By tracking the SAG vehicles using APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) we could dispatch the closest SAG to a rider who needed support.

Great job today by all who supported the Reston Century.

Photos here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/2/folders/1mOVYAO70Msyzd-4RRxzI02IYzjTcOisF

The latest LARG frequency plan has been posted to: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PdsoWIMnCISwIcQcRGRfmlsxdkeMc8_-/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=110023419493660951574&rtpof=true&sd=true

Changes from the previous plan are highlighted in yellow.

Charts for the August meeting have been uploaded and separated into 2 files:

For the general meeting files and info on the rides go to: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nY0MfaHaCk9lgeRW0A0f0imNTXVyQwSm/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=110023419493660951574&rtpof=true&sd=true

For the POTA=FIELD DAY=EMCOM go to: https://k4lrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/POTAEMCOMField-Day.pdf

We have a great morning activating park US-9935, the VA Bird and Wildlife Trail at the Rust Nature Sanctuary. Setup started about 815am and we stopped operations just before noon. We had 3 stations and while I don’t have the final numbers, we were between 90 and 100 QSOs. Also 3 operators got their first exposure to FT8 and POTA all in one sitting.

Attendees were:

• Steve, KS1G
• Ron, KB4IQI
• Tareck, K9TRE
• Patrick, KR4VZF
• Rob, KR4EEV
• Jerry, KR4BXO
• Dave, KE4S
• Jim, K4FW and his wife Cindy.
• Steve, N4RAF

We also had some visitors who stopped by as they went out to repair the bluebird houses and expressed some interest in getting their license.

Photos from Field Day can be found here.

Or if you prefer to download the slide show click here.

The updated charts from the 20 Jun 26 meeting are posted here: https://shorturl.at/DXFct

Thanks to everyone who attended.

Happy Fathers Day!!!

Steve, N4RAF

A reminder you may buy club SWAG from:

Lands’ End: https://business.landsend.com/store/larg/

The SignMan: https://thesignman.company.site/ (new site)