Location: Landers Vicinity
I wanted to have a T Hunt that ended
with a BBQ where everyone could gather together. I
knew of some interesting history in the Landers
area. My hope was to highlight some of this
history. The first transmitter was going to be hid
near the grave of a local Indian character named Willie
Boy. I had found his grave many years ago high on
a hill and I hoped I could bounce a signal off the
Rodman mountains. I left Friday morning for my
cabin in Landers, disconnected my trailer at the cabin,
and headed for the hills to find Willie Boy. To my
dismay, I found I had no phone service…..thus no
maps. I poked around in the hills and could not
find a suitable road to high ground. I found a
spot that had a good view to the Rodman Hills, got out
the transmitter, tripod, sand bags, UHF antenna and to
my dismay, I found I left my VHF antenna back at the
trailer (BBQ). After an hour round trip, I ended
up back at the site and pointed the 11 element
beam horizontally polarized, toward the Rodman Hills and
returned to the trailer to set up the BBQ site.
This was going to be a 120 W transmitter connected to
what was supposed to be an 11 element horizontally
polarized beam pointed toward the Rodman Hills. In
the dark, I accidentally put the beam up vertically (on
a 20 ft. mast).
After a good night’s sleep, I got up
to place the other transmitters and noticed that my beam
was vertically polarized. I was not able to safely
take it down and put it back up. I headed out to
place the 2nd transmitter which was hidden at
the Integratron (voice transmitter with voice sample
from Mr. Peabody cartoon Way Back Machine). This
was a 10 Mw transmitter. The next
transmitter was hidden in the vicinity of Giant
Rock. This site had quite a bit of history with
the UFO folks, as did the Integratron. After about
4 hours, this transmitter failed. The controller
failed to key the transmitter. After changing the
9V battery and checking the connections, it seemed to
work fine. After a short time, the controller
failed again. After this many trips to the hill
top site, my big white vehicle was clearly
noticed. After swapping out the transmitter with
one that had no tones but keyed continuously, I left the
site hoping for the best. When I arrived back at
the BBQ, I could hear all of the transmitters and
everything seemed normal. Now, all I need is
hunters.
When the hunters began to arrive, I
was so excited I forgot to pay attention to the
transmitters. Sometime later, I noticed the
transmitter at Giant Rock could not be heard. I
chalked this up to a dead battery and gave it no more
thought. I turned my attention to BBQing some
hamburgers, hot dogs and stories from the hunters.
Thank you to all of you that helped
me tear it down and load the heavy stuff in the
trailer. I traveled down to Intgratron to pick up
my transmitter and then to Giant Rock. I drove up
the hill in the dark and got out to get my transmitter
and couldn’t find it. I thought I may be on the
wrong hill but then I found my sign in sheet, but no
transmitter, battery or antenna could be found.
DARN!!!!!
I want to thank everyone that came
out and made this a successful hide. I had a lot
of fun putting it on and I hope that everyone enjoyed
it.
Ron Allerdice
WA6CYY
Name Call TBOY TBBQ T TIME VOICE STEVE & DON KD6LAJ/KF6GQ 14:25- 99.0 MILES 15:30-105.6 MILES 14:55-104.0 MILES DERYL & RAY N6AIN/N6EKS 17:40-159.4 MILES 15:35-142.9 MILES 15:55-146.1 MILES TOM & JIM K6VCR/AF6O DNF 17:04-144.1 MILES 15:51-BUNCH OF MILES DOUG WA6RJN 16:36-122.6 MILES 17:03-127.6 MILES 17:51-129.3 MILES BOB & GLENN WB6JPI/AB6PA DNF 18:20-187.0 MILES DNF
THE WINNERS ARE DON KF6GQ AND STEVE KD6LAJ