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I've heard that you might not need a special directional antenna to participate in a foxhunt, that some people are able to use their body to help determine the direction of a signal.

How does this work? More specifically, what is the process to do this, and why does it work?

Does this only work on specific frequencies, or can this be used for 2M and 70cM dual band HTs with stock antennas? Is it tricky and requires practice, or could someone new to ham radio be taught it and effectively using it in a handful of minutes?

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Essentially this involves using your body as a barrier to fade the signals. Holding the HT close to you, and rotating until you get the weakest signal, then the source of that signal will be on the other side of you.

In an answer to a different question, WPrecht - AB3RY quoted the following Handie-Talkie Tricks tip from Joe Moell, KØOV's Homing In website:

When the signal is so strong that you can't find the null, tune 5 or 10 KHz off frequency to put the signal into the skirts of the receiver's IF passband. If your hand-held is dual-band (144/440 MHz) and you are hunting on two meters, try tuning to the much weaker third harmonic of the signal in the 70 cm band while performing the "body shield." Disconnecting the HT's "rubber duck" antenna will knock down the signal even more. Hearing the signal with antenna off is usually a "You are here!" indicator.

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  • $\begingroup$ Does anyone know if I can just directly reference his answer? I'd rather not have it disjointed with this copy-paste. Maybe just a source link? $\endgroup$
    – David VK2VXK
    Dec 3, 2013 at 19:30

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