Hider: Doug WA6RJN
Hider Report
Not being sure of how many hunters would be coming I came up
with a plan, a hunt near home. I started with the Pasadena
area and added the La Crencenta area. I looked for sites where
there was a little privacy within the urban area that would
also have good coverage. I found this task to be more
difficult than expected. I managed to find several sites and
hoped they would work.
In the planning process I realized that one of my sites was
near the home of a friend of mine that I hadn’t seen in a long
time (we had communicated my emails). I email him to see if he
would want to have a T at his house. He agreed and further, he
wanted to help hide.
Saturday morning arrived and along with it was a series of
challenges. First I did not set my alarm and overslept. As I
was about to leave I realized I hadn’t printed the sign in
sheets. After quickly printing them I could not find the bags
they go in which included a pen, a rock, and cardboard backing
(I still haven’t found them). Fortunately I have a box of
pens.
Once on the road I realized I had left one of the Ts at home
on the charger.
I picked up my friend, Bill, WB6MGT, and took off to hide some
Ts. Time ran out and we raced backed to his house to turn on
the main T, T10 (50mW into a gain vertical on his roof). This
T was line-of-sight to the Pathfinder starting point. I pulled
my handheld to check the signal only to find it had been left
on and was dead.
While hiding T11, the antenna broke and had to be repaired.
While hiding T2, the transmitter’s coax broke at the antenna
connector and had to be resoldered after which the voice/ID
broke and had to be removed and resoldered. Then I tripped
twice, landing once on my recently injured knee and landing
once on the radio on my hip.
The laptop that we were using that had the locations of
the Ts on a map crashed several times. The Yeasu in my car
lost its memory channels and had to be reprogrammed.
While trying to hide T8 (bug T) off of Hwy 2, we discovered
the location I thought was a field turned out to be a private
country club parking lot. Desperately trying to find a
location we returned to Hwy 2 south and just around the corner
was a little side street that had a view. Unfortunately we did
not realize that the residence below also had view of the T.
Yet another odd thing was that none of the hunters took the
direct route to the hiding area in Pasadena. Instead the
hunters went around to the back of the hiding area and started
there. The hunt turned out to be much more difficult than
planned.
All in all it seemed I faced one problem after another.
Perhaps when I hide next hunt in January things will go
better. At lease all of the Ts worked and I was able to spend
the day with an old friend.
T10 – At the residence of WB6MGT
T2 – End of Rising Hill Road
T9 – Bush near T2
T8 – On Vista Canada Pl of Hwy 2
T4 – Up the path at the end of Figueroa Rd (off Chevy Chase
Dr), overlooks Rose Bowl
T5 – End of Forest Hill Rd (near Descanso Gardens)
T11 – End of Oakmont View Dr (off La Crescenta Dr)
T7 – End of Cedarbend Dr
T3 – End of Verdugo Crestline Dr
Results
WA6CYY had to leave the hunt early.
N6MI / K6VCR are the winners by a T.
T3 T7 T11 T5 T8 T10 T2 T9 T4
N6AIN/N6EKS 1:10 - 1:57 3:15 3:03 - - - -
56 - 67 84 81 - - - -
N6MI/K6VCR 3:12 4:38 - 6:00 8:30* 9:30* - - -
118 130 - 130 130 130 - - -
* Checked in by phone due to residence proximity.
