Hider WA6RJN Doug's Story

I wanted a simple hunt. One idea I had was to place a string of transmitters with the last one as the main T.When I worked in Santa Barbara about 10 years ago I had checked out a number of possible sites between Ventura and Santa Barbara.

Leaving home about an hour late I headed for the west end of Ventura. I figured no matter what route was taken from the starting point everyone would pass by this point. Unfortunately the area where Main street connects with the 101 was either low terrain or private so I just stuffed T9 (50 mW) into a large bush between the Main street on and off ramps.  That done, I headed for Seacliff. I had a spot at the end of the old road. Unfortunately, the last part of the road was closed off. I walked in about 100 feet and up an embankment and dropped off T4 (50 mW).

At the east end of Carpentaria the original road ends at a large open area. I hid T7 (.5W) behind a bush where hwy 101 could be seen in both directions. It was about 9 AM so I headed to the location I had picked out for the main T. Most of the way up Gibraltar I hid the bug T as T6 (50 mW). Reaching Camino Cielo, I drove east about 3 miles and hid T1 (3W). This site has a nice view to the east and south. Originally I used just a whip antenna but the signal could not be heard at the starting point. I changed to a 6 element horizontal beam and that solved the problem. On my way back down Gibraltar I hid T11 (50 mW).

On the T1 sign in sheet I had written “Last T of 8”. I had one to go. I went to Santa Clause Lane and hid T5 (50 mW) on the railroad side of the bushes next to the road. All that was needed now was the hunters.

While monitoring the Ts I noticed a T with a very fast ID. I determined it was T7 and went to fix it. Just after I arrived, Deryl (N6AIN) pulled up behind me. I had to wait for him to find T7 before I could fix it. It didn’t take him long. I was unable to fix it so I decided to swap it out with another T. Back to the car. Now Bob (WB6JPI) shows up. I couldn’t get the back up T programmed to ID as T7. I decided that since 3 of the 4 teams had found the T that I would just leave it as is.

Toward evening I headed back up to T1. I passed Bob at T11. I met up with Bob and Cathy (N6ZHZ, KDCYG) at T10. Deryl came by about then headed back down. While following Bob and Cathy to T1 Scott (N6MI) came from the other direction.  After T1 was found I collected it as Bob had started for home. It was about 42 degrees with a 35 MHP wind. I also headed home collecting Ts as I went.

Two teams were official and two unofficial. Surprisingly, the unofficial teams did better than the official teams. Since Scott, N6MI, found all the Ts, he is declared the winner.

I heard that that both T1 and T10 could be heard in San Diego.
Doug WA6RJN

RESULTS

N6MI	T7	T6	T10	T1	T11	T5	T4	T9
WINNER	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
TIME	1:52	3:00	3:36	4:15	6:00	6:45	7:30	7:50
N6ZHZ/KD6CYG	T9	T4	T11	T6	T10	T1
	---	---	---	---	---	---
TIME	1:28	2:20	4:00	4:23	4:45	5:45
WB6JPI	T9	T4	T7	T11	T6
MILES	94.7	104.0	109.4	130.0	139.2
TIME	12:58	1:46	2:36	4:45	5:14
N6AIN	T7	T11	T6	T10
MILES	109.7	134.0	138.7	140.0
TIME	2:14	3:50	4:22	4:43