First T-Hunt of the year 2015

by KD6LAJ / KF6GQ

Now that I had solved all my issues with extreme electrical noise in my FJ Cruiser, I was ready for this hunt! I repaired my pre-amp, built a new antenna, and put all new coax on my T-Hunt equipment.

We had gotten some info from Deryl that he had a good signal from the west side of LA, so Steve was coming by my house to start. While waiting for Steve I monitored the T-Hunt frequency and heard both N6MI & N6MJN give bearings from their locations. These bearings seemed to go out to the high desert, so a trip up over the mountains was in order. Steve arrived, and off we went, I had not had one bit of signal from home, but as soon as I got one block south and west, up comes this rather strong signal from T-1.

This is good, an actual signal to follow! It took us west on to the 134, pass the 5, and also pass the 405! As it turns out up the 5 would have been better, but who's counting miles. Somewhere in Reseda we hear a “I'm STUCK” from JPI. We called him to let him know we heard him, and called him on the phone. He said that he was near T-6, but wouldn't tell us his location, to call him when we got near T-6. So now from all the T's we could hear at that time (4), we had one to aim for. After making several bad choices, we ended up at Topanga Canyon Blvd. and the 118 freeway (been here before). We knew that there was a way to get east (the way T-6 seemed to be) from there, so we went on these little narrow streets both paved and unpaved (broken pavement). And came to an intersection that was blocked by this vehicle that was across the road! It took Steve to recognize  that that was the stuck car of JPI. (See RJN's picture). The direction that we had come in from, made it impossible to assist in get his car out. Jippy was on the phone with Doug (RJN), and was coming to help. When he got there he was on the other side of Jippy's car, better to pull him out. So with four engineers several different ideas on how to extract him, we came to the conclusion that Jippy would have stay there! No, we did come up with a plan. There was this strategically placed telephone pole almost directly in back of Jippy, and I had a tow strap, that when connected with Doug's strap would be long enough to go around the pole and reach Doug's car. So by placing a plastic bag ( for lubrication) on the back side of the pole, we pulled the Pirus right out of that ditch! We were elated that it had worked as well as it did (we didn't even pull the telephone pole over on us)! The community didn't even lose their power and phones. Now that Jippy was out, we went on to find some T's.

Drove right by T-6 found the Brown's Canyon Rd. where we found T's 1 and Voice (Bug T). We bumped into Jippy again, it seems that the stuck incident hadn't slowed him down at all. On the way out we remembered that we hadn't found T-6 yet, so we found a high spot and got several bearings on it and T-2 and T-5. We found T-6 about 300 yards from where Jippy got stuck, and on the road that we had left after the rescue. Then went after T2 (windy) and T5. Went up to the top of Santa Susana Pass, got bearings on T-7 and T-4. Defiantly east . Drove up into Porter Ranch and worked our way to T-4. After a short walk and catching my bad shin on a stick stuck in the ground, I found the sign in sheet, but it took Steve to actually find the T! At this time I noticed that my sniffer was not working as well as I remembered. It really didn't want to point directly at the signal! Not a good thing, something has broken. As we where looking for T-4, we had gotten a signal from T-7, so got a direction on it and went for it. Luckily as we arrived at the end of the road, we saw Jippy on the hillside either crawling on the ground, or hiding something! Well, it seems to be another T, in which we hadn't heard before, T-10! How nice of Jippy to locate it for us. With my sniffer not doing it's thing correctly it took Steve again to locate the T, and to dig the sign in sheet from under some dirt (thanks Jippy). Now the best we could determine T-7 was on the other side or at the bottom of a canyon (Aliso). It is now getting dark, and no way to get across the canyon. Drive all the way down  to Rinaldi  St. then back up to T-7 (we hope). After several dirt roads and back tracking on paved roads, we go to the other side of the canyon (it's now completely dark). We get out take the best bearing we can from the car, and hike to the T area. My sniffer seemed to indicate up a pathway parallel to the canyon, up we went only to go pass the T by about 100'. Then we see Jippy below us, and he has a sniffer that works! Jippy finds the T for us, and we sign in to number eight T for us! Time to go home.

Note: I didn't mentioned that Steve was using a Tablet that was hooked up to a USB dongle radio chip. Using Sharp+ (a software program for these dongles), he is able to get a waterfall display from all the T's (that can be heard), and can tell by some of the characteristics which T is transmitting. Did it help? I'm not sure, but sometimes it clarified a decision to be made. But it helps keep him busy so he doesn't interfere with my T-hunting (just kidding Steve).

Good hunt, got back home at reasonable hour, and less than ¾ tank of fuel.

Thank Doug for the hide.