Real world application of radio fox hunting skills, albeit a lost falcon
(bird not aircraft)in Alaska from the KL7KC email list.
73
DE KA1LHZ
You're very welcome Troy, good chatting with you.
So I met yesterday with the young man that lost the Falcon. In the
Nelson area I would get a double beep using my handheld with an
installed vehicle antenna around the Nelson/Chena Lakes area. I let him
know and gave him a GPS location via text and he met up with me where I
was receiving a possible signal albeit super weak. He's utilizing a
small "box" receiver with an SMA connector that connects via Bluetooth
to his smart phone. I asked him several questions to try to get a gist
of what the signal should sound like and from what he ended up telling
me he had no idea and that he had never had to officially use this to
find a rouge bird. Scott (W9ITU) contacted several manufacturers of
trackers like that and it so happens that one of the ones that he talked
to turns up to be the one he was using. Scott talked to the young man
earlier in the day and they met up on a hill at UAF trying to pick up a
signal. The manufacturer reported to Scott that we should hear 2 beeps,
a short pause and then two more beeps while the unit was in power save
mode on a frequency of 434.055 (Ham Frequency). Although Scott was able
to pick up several signals including a "2 beep" signal using that
frequency, they were unable to make contact with the bird from the UAF
vantage point. While the owner and I were on the flood control dyke a
few hours later after the owner searching from the UAF standpoint, my
SDR that I hooked up to my laptop was picking up signals and one of them
was what I believed to be the 2 beep signal as described. Not only
would it "2 beep" but then it would send off a data burst lasting a half
a second every 2nd or third "2 beep". While waiting for the owner to
arrive, I timed the gap between the 2 beeps that I was receiving and
that was 1m 43s. When I plugged in the SDR to the laptop to look at the
spectrum, I was getting several other beeps from what I thought to be
other stations that we were receiving. When the owner brought his "box"
out, he was not unable to make contact with the bird even from the high
vantage point of the dyke at around 2:30pm yesterday (16th). As it
stands now, we don't know if any of those signals that we have been
monitoring and ended up hearing was coming from the TX attached to the bird.
While waiting for the signal and talking to the owner, several things
became apparent and with my background, I started to dig a little. The
owner was from New York and was in Fairbanks just to attend UAF and had
only been in Alaska for a short time. While he had been involved with
Falconry for a self reported four years, he stated that he's never had
to rely on this device to recover/track a bird. While at Creamer's
Field, he stated a fox had run out onto the filed and spooked the bird.
Once the bird took flight, he headed, according to his "box", towards
the Chena Lake area or /possibly/ as far as the Two Rivers area. The
owner then stated that he drove to Chena Lakes area and stated that he
had received a signal for a short time and then lost it, being his last
contact with the bird the night of the 15th. Jerry, (KL7EDK) was
involved with the search from the start and was mobile attempting to
track the bird for what I believe to be several hours in the Two
Rivers/Pleasant Valley/Chena Hot Springs Road area earlier in the day
but had no contact with the bird both visual or via signal.
Although I don't doubt his Falcon took flight and is now lost, the owner
was very unfamiliar with his equipment to properly track the bird and
had never run a "worst case scenario" test and that became more apparent
the more I talked with him. The owner referenced the "15 mile range"
advertised with that model he purchased several times. I advised him
that if the TX from the bird was a few millawatts as reported and the
bird had flown into the trees or landed on the ground, there would be
/no way/ to make contact except at a very very short range from his RX
while the bird was blocked by trees. I told him the only way RX would
be made is when the bird was in flight at an high altitude to clear most
if not all the trees especially as the TX was using 70cm spectrum. I
told the owner that the specs that show in advertisements for the
equipment he was using had a 99.9% chance of being overinflated just to
sell the product. After talking to the owner, I strongly believe that he
did have contact as the bird flew away but shortly after the bird got to
a distance he lost contact and /estimated /the final location of the
bird so the final searching location was essentially a /guess/ by the
owner. The bird could have returned by now, chose a different flight
path or continued to fly South. The owner referenced he believed that
the bird would "just fly south to a warmer climate" on a migratory
track. As the owner reported, the bird was hand raised and had no
experience hunting on it's own in the wild, making it's chance to
survive in the area alone as the temps dropped, extremely unlikely
considering that the birds instinct to survive and eat may extend the
birds chances very little over the long run. Adding the bird attempting
to fly to a warmer climate south and actually making through our extreme
mountain ranges, even more unlikely. The owner stated that the
battery power /maybe /another day, but with the unfamiliarity of the
owner with his equipment, I think this is a complete guess as well. The
colder temps may aid the TX battery slightly to last longer but with the
current conditions, it won't be a positive benefit for long. The owner
also told me that the bird severely physical activity declines in
temperatures of -5F or lower. I chose not to go further and inform him
of our our average temperature range....
At the end of our contact, the owner stated he would stay behind in the
Chena Lakes area for /some time/ and attempt to pick up a signal again.
As I departed the area, I pulled over around a turn in the road just out
of sight of the owner to secure my laptop and equipment better and /no
more than 30 seconds/ later the owner drove past me and entered the
Richardson north bound....headed back to town.
Take this in as you'd like but personally, even an animal that is a
sport animal, I would exhaust absolutely every hour to find said animal
until I was certain it was unrecoverable. Still monitoring the
frequency for activity or a stronger signal that may change is probably
the best route for now.
Chris (KL1AC)
On 10/16/2020 6:34 PM, Troy Birdsall wrote:
Thanks for the update. On 434.055 if I open the squelch I get a blip/ beep about every 15ish seconds. It comes in around S5 on my handheld. If I close the squelch I get nothing. What should we be hearing if it still had power?
Troy / KL3YZ
On Oct 16, 2020, at 6:25 PM, Chris Hampton <chris.hampton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
Well, we came up empty handed. We believe we had a signal out by Chena Lakes but that was never confirmed. No visual sighting. You very well might have seen it.
Chris KL1AC
Get BlueMail for Android <http://www.bluemail.me/r?b=16117>
On Oct 16, 2020, at 4:24 PM, Troy Birdsall <troybirdsall@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:troybirdsall@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Any update on the falcon? I believe I might have just seen one
flying between Eastview and Fabian. Just north of Weller.
Troy
KL3YZ
On Oct 16, 2020, at 11:00 AM, Charles Beaudreault
<charles@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I am also monitoring now
On Fri, Oct 16, 2020, 10:56 AM DanW < powellite@xxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:powellite@xxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Roger. Im monitoring now - VHF Antenna at 50feet. I can
hear/cover all to the south as far as Birch Lake and East to
Two Rivers.
Is there a beacon or what to listen for? Besides squelch
break...
Sent from Dan/KL1JP
> On Oct 16, 2020, at 10:20, Jerry Curry < jercurry@xxxxxxx
<mailto:jercurry@xxxxxxx>> wrote:
>
> A Peregrine falcon is lost in the Fairbanks/Two Rivers
area. It has a tracker on
> it that operates on 434.055 Mhz. The owner is asking for
anyone with
> tracking equipment to listen for her. It is believed she
was involved with some training
> at Creamer’s Field when she escaped. There is only about
15 hrs left in the battery of the tracker.
>
> If you can listen please help. I monitor 147.180 repeater.
>
> Here is the original post on her:
>
> ·
> Shared with:
> Public
> Please keep an eye out for a young female peregrine falcon
(imprint/ falconry bird). She may be hungry and possibly
land in someone’s yard. If so, she might be tame enough for
someone to capture.. either sneaking up when she is eating
and grabbing her jesses/ legs or possibly netting her.
Please contact me if so. She has jesses, a band, and a blue
telemetry transmitter on her leg. Last tracked to Two Rivers
and Pleasant Valley. She is the only peregrine in the area
at the moment. Truly appreciate it! Oh! If you have anyway
of tracking UHF frequency-434.055
>
> 73
> Jerry
> KL7EDK
>
>
