All Day Transmitter Hunt
Hider: Doug WA6RJN
My hide last month was filled with confusing signals, fog, drizzle, and overall difficultly even through it was not the intent. For this month I want to put on a hunt that would be easier and one where everyone would find the Ts. Well, once they found the signal that is.
I again left on Friday to hide the Ts. Again things got behind and I didn’t set up T1 until sunset and continued into the dark. After affixing the beam to the pole a little lower than usual and sorting out a few bad coax segments, T1 was on the air running 40 watts into an 11 element beam with a good SWR. The beam was aimed toward mount Baldy hoping the signal would bounce into the L.A. area. Instead the hunters heard the signal nearby T7 running 4 watts into a vertical whip. I suspected things would get better once they reached the Oak Hill exit at the summit of I15. T7 could be heard in many areas while the main T could not. My guess was that because I lowered the beam it produced a canceling ground wave.
The hiding area was Coxey road on Rattlesnake Mt. Coxey road runs between Hesperia and Green Lake/Big Bear. The other Ts were running 50 mW and were scattered along Coxey and Bowen Ranch roads. T4 was in a place where I could see Victorville, Apple Valley, and Hesperia.
On Saturday morning I turned on my radio and heard T7 but T1 was gone. I returned to check on it and found was now running 30 watts. I had checked with GQ and AIN and they could not hear the signal down in the L.A. area. I re-aimed the beam toward L.A. T1 was still sketchy in the general area but T7 popped up everywhere. Before the end of the hunt the battery in T1 died explaining why no one found it.
In my running around I came across JPI (parked next to T6, the Bug T). Going up toward T7 I came across AIN/EKS and GQ/LAJ. All the hunters had gone east through Hesperia (and past the hiding area), around to the east through Big Bear and back north on Coxey road to the Ts (the spiral technique is one I have mastered also). I continued up the road to start picking up Ts and go home.
It’s interesting to note that KF6GQ/KD6LAJ and N6AIN/N6EKS had identical times and mileages. WB6JPI beat them both by time driving a Prius! For that feat he is declared the winner.
Results:
WB6JPI's Story
KF6GQ's Story
My hide last month was filled with confusing signals, fog, drizzle, and overall difficultly even through it was not the intent. For this month I want to put on a hunt that would be easier and one where everyone would find the Ts. Well, once they found the signal that is.
I again left on Friday to hide the Ts. Again things got behind and I didn’t set up T1 until sunset and continued into the dark. After affixing the beam to the pole a little lower than usual and sorting out a few bad coax segments, T1 was on the air running 40 watts into an 11 element beam with a good SWR. The beam was aimed toward mount Baldy hoping the signal would bounce into the L.A. area. Instead the hunters heard the signal nearby T7 running 4 watts into a vertical whip. I suspected things would get better once they reached the Oak Hill exit at the summit of I15. T7 could be heard in many areas while the main T could not. My guess was that because I lowered the beam it produced a canceling ground wave.
The hiding area was Coxey road on Rattlesnake Mt. Coxey road runs between Hesperia and Green Lake/Big Bear. The other Ts were running 50 mW and were scattered along Coxey and Bowen Ranch roads. T4 was in a place where I could see Victorville, Apple Valley, and Hesperia.
On Saturday morning I turned on my radio and heard T7 but T1 was gone. I returned to check on it and found was now running 30 watts. I had checked with GQ and AIN and they could not hear the signal down in the L.A. area. I re-aimed the beam toward L.A. T1 was still sketchy in the general area but T7 popped up everywhere. Before the end of the hunt the battery in T1 died explaining why no one found it.
In my running around I came across JPI (parked next to T6, the Bug T). Going up toward T7 I came across AIN/EKS and GQ/LAJ. All the hunters had gone east through Hesperia (and past the hiding area), around to the east through Big Bear and back north on Coxey road to the Ts (the spiral technique is one I have mastered also). I continued up the road to start picking up Ts and go home.
It’s interesting to note that KF6GQ/KD6LAJ and N6AIN/N6EKS had identical times and mileages. WB6JPI beat them both by time driving a Prius! For that feat he is declared the winner.
Results:
WB6JPI T7 T5 T9 T6 T10
Time 1:00 1:30 1:48 3:00 3:22 Winner
Miles -- -- -- -- --
KF6GQ/KD6LAJ T7 T5 T9 T6 T10
Time 2:35 2:49 3:02 3:38 3:48
Miles 149.7 150.7 151.7 113 ? 155.5
N6AIN/N6EKS T7 T5 T9 T6 T10
Time 2:32 2:48 3:02 3:38 3:48
Miles 149.8 150.6 151.6 155 156.9
WB6JPI's Story
KF6GQ's Story