Last evening (8/21/2026), the York Radio Club hosted the Club’s fifth annual Fox Hunt exercise in the Elmhurst area.

George Tasson, KC9UIU, led the hunt as the fox and coordinated the participants through the Club’s W9YRC UHF repeater. This was a mobile based hunt whereby the hunters drove a wide area course within Elmhurst. The “Fox” radio package, designed by George, consists of a low-power HT controlled by an Arduino UNO micro-controller. As the Fox target, the radio would intermittently transmit on 147.42 Mhz. with the Club’s call sign for the hunters to home in on. The hunt kicked off at 5:30pm local time with the fox hidden at the East-End park:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/o1TEmPoZEuZVRvc67

The first “hunter” found the fox within 15-minutes!
The Fox hunt participants and their times of arrival were:

#1 – Moran, WK9W 5:43pm
#2 – Jacob, KE9DRY 5:51pm
#3 – Thomas, W9TEF 5:53pm
#4 – Andrew, W3AWC 6:00pm
#5 – Jim, N9XP 6:05pm
#6 – Todd, W9YK 6:57pm
#7 – John, K9SSN 6:57pm

Honorable mention also goes out to

John, AC9UV and John, KE9CWZ

All told, this was a great fox hunt exercise, and a good time was had by all!

Submitted by: Bob, W9HYB

Thanks to Bill (WD9END), John (N9MWF), John (AC9UV), Jimmy (KB3OAD), Kirk (K9MSG), as well as Jim (N9XP), Bill (N9MHT) & Brenda, who shared their time and equipment with the scouts and their families last night during a beautiful evening in Oak Park.  Scouts on the Air and the York Radio Club helped our guests use DMR to speak with the youth of the Northern IL Bottlecap Balloon Brigade.  Our guests also learned CW, explored beacon hunting, made contacts on FT8 (as far away as Europe), and spoke to operators on the YRC repeater.  Enjoy this collection of photos!  More details are available here https://www.amateurradioevents.com/scoutsontheair