Doug's Story
March 22nd 2014

It all started well. My first reading at the summit starting point was about 320 which would have pointed me in the right direction. Unfortunately my second reading, which agreed with the other hunters, was about 280. This took me along the mountains. First oops.

I originally planned to go to Table Mt off Hwy 2 but took Phelan road to hwy 138 instead. Second oops. Readings along 138 showed T2 to the south. I took a dirt road that went that way and fount T2 in a tree. While there, N6AIN, WB6JPI, and K6VCR dropped by.

The reading for T3 was 280 which took me along N3 at the base of the mountains. I could head the signal but mostly on CW. A few roads later I joined Sierra Hwy and took it into the forest (more like bushes) north of Valencia. Third oops. Readings were still about 260 – 280. I thought that the T3 might be on a ridge that was just able to see the starting point over the other ridges. At Lake Hughes road I had a reading of 300 which pointed to Mt Pinos. I never thought the Ts would be that far away given the reading I had at the starting point. Still using CW. Along the way I had slipped and strained a muscle in by leg.

Heading up the road to Frasier Park I finally had a decent signal. Along the way I heard a raspy T9 but couldn’t get a fix on it. I tracked T10(?) to Cuddy Valley and Mil Potrero roads. The readings were coming from everywhere with no particular direction. After a while I finally found a loose coax connector and the reading become more reasonable. I got out the sniffer but it didn’t work. The AA batteries had come loose so I had to take it apart and fix the battery pack. I tried sniffing in the dark but kept getting erratic readings. Being prepared, I got out my backup sniffer which is a handheld that has a meter and fits into a metal shielding box and works using the body shield technique. Turned it on – nothing. The AA batteries were dead and had started to leak.

I decided to find T3 instead. I somehow manage to find the talking T near T3. It was in a nest of pine needles on top of an eight foot tall rock. Arriving at T3 where the road passes though a cut, I just took just my flashlight up the hill and found the antenna with T3 attached. It was about 32 degrees outside.

I doubled back to take another try at T10. With the car beam I could get good bearings but the sniffer was still erratic (I would find out later that the coax connectors on both my tape measure antennas were bad). Since it was 10:30 PM, near freezing, and by leg hurt, I decided to go home. Some hunts just go this way.

Thanks Don, it was a very good hunt. I appreciate all the work you put into it.

Doug WA6RJN