All Day Transmitter Hunt
Hider: Doug WA6RJN
Hiding winter hunts limits the possible locations because many areas are closed. Forests road are unavailable and other areas can get washed out. Then there was the El Nino threat of monsoonal amounts of rain. I decided to try an area that had not hidden in for a while that should not be a problem if it rained.
The area I chose was along the California Aqueduct north of Red Rock Canyon not far from Ridgecrest. The idea I had was to hide relativity low so that I had a clear path to the Summit starting point (top of the Cajon Pass on I-15) but that would shadowed the route in between because the mountains ranges.
The primary T was between two hills up Sage Canyon Rd off the roads that follow the aqueduct. This also would have the effect of reducing the signal to the east and north. The idea was great but the signal for the hunters pointed more due north which brought them up Hwy 395. I quest that worked too. T1 was running 30W in to my 6-element coat hanger beam. I intended to use my 11-element beam but the brush was so scarce I couldn’t camouflage it.
T4 was running 50 mW and was hidden up Cow Heaven Canyon Rd. At the intersection of Cow Heaven and the #2 aqueduct was the voice Bug T running 50 mW.
T6 was running 1/2W into a whip and was located on Redrock Inyokern Rd to the east of T4/T3/T7.
Thinking most of the Ts would be relatively easy to find (just drive up the roads off the aqueduct), T11 would be more difficult. It was running 50 mW into a vertical J hung from a cactus and was alongside Redrock Inyokern Rd just north of Redrock Canyon Park. The signal was weak and the modulation was low but could be heard near several other Ts. The idea was that the bearings from the areas it could be heard would lead the hunters to it but hunting it directly would be difficult.
After hiding the Ts, I stayed in Ridgecrest overnight and could not hear any signals. Early the next morning I hid T7 which ran 4W into a vertical whip and was located a little below Robbers Roost off the aqueduct. This T ensured those that came up Hwy 395 would get a signal near Ridgecrest.
Unknown to me, the Ridgecrest amateur radio operators were having their own T hunt the same day. After finding their T they heard mine and came looking them. They found T7 at Robber’s Roost.
Results Team KF6GQ / KD6LAJ T7 T6 T3 T4 T1 T11 Winners 1:10 2:15 3:02 3:20 4:03 5:07 111 123 127 129 135 149 N6MI / K6VCR T3 T4 T1 T11 T6 T7 3:15 3:20 ? 5:06 5:31 7:15 112 113 121 134 142 156 WB6JPI /AB6PA T1 T3 T4 T7 T6 T11 2:20 3:10 3:20 4:25 5:30 6:21 199 205 207 216 218 227 N6AIN / N6EKS T3 T7 T4 T6 T1 1:30 1:48 2:11 2:45 3:30 146.6 149.5 154 160 174 KA6ARA and friends T7 (Ridgecrest) 1:15
