Doug's Story




I heard both the continuous signal and another T at the starting point. I drove to Riverside and exited at Arlington. That's when KF6GQ broke the continuous T and N6AIN substituted one of his own. I spend a lot of time driving around tracking bounces until I got on the Rubidoux side of the ridge.

After finding the T11  I took the 60 to the 10 and into Banning. Stopping at Green River (as did GQ) the signal pointed east. Getting back on the freeway I saw a lot of smoke and thought it was yet another brush fire but turned out to be a car fire.

Going south from Banning on the 243  I found T1 a little way up the grade. There I heard another T toward Indo. 

Found the "Edison T" on Edom Hill after taking a short hike up a sandy road. There were less sign-ins on this T. There I could faintly hear another T toward to the east.

Climbing up the grade to Chiriaco summit the signal grew in strength. At the exit before the Cottonwood Springs exit I was getting a "you're here" signal. The signal pointed was along a dirt road paralleling the freeway. The power line road was good but no T. When I reached Cottonwood Springs road the signal was from the south. I took the road south until it turned west and another paved road took of to the east. Also in this intersection was a dirt road that went south. After being pulled over by a CHP, that had just pulled over another hunter, I took the dirt road south and up. When I got a "you are definitely here" signal, I sniffed it out and found T3 with an amp feeding a beam. It was dark by then and I found the T by seeing the LEDs on the amplifier. Odd, no one else had signed in.

I could easily here the next T, with the frogs and cows, pointing toward the summit. At the summit the signal was not as strong as I expected and came from the north. Consulting the map I discovered a road going in that direction. Following it I came to a tree containing a 3-element beam with T attached. Hmmm, no one had signed into this T either.

I could not hear any other Ts even in CW mode. Coming slowing down the road I could hear only Ts I had already found. I also saw a couple of 4 legged natives. Must have been some of the "friends" Bob mentioned on the T voice ID.

When I arrived back at the summit area I received a call from Steve, one of the hiders, and at that point I could faintly hear another T to the east. Steve mentioned the next T was out near Blythe. I decided to call it a hunt being I was the only one signed-in on the last two Ts.


Near Green River exit



I thought the Ts were not going to be in a burn area (next to T1).



"And Friends" near the summit T.

 

WA6RJN

Doug