At the start Mike noticed that one of the transmitters was a repeater. I thought he was just mumbling. I had no idea what he meant. I knew that Don had a simplex repeater and had used it on hides many years ago, but Mikes observation went entirely unheeded. I heard three or four transmitters at the start. I heard T1, T2 another T2 and something else with a short string of CW. All but one were at 65 degrees (Holcomb Valley) but one (T2 weak) was at 24 degrees (Mt. Wilson) and was horizontal. Knowing Don has the 100 ft antenna (that I have yet to find and see in the flesh) I went after that signal.

I went up to Mt Wilson. Nice day for a drive. No signal at all.

On the way down to Red Box I heard stuff east. Nice day for a drive. I went east on Hwy 2.

Eventually got to 138 and 2 after dodging runners on the 100 mile run along the Pacific Crest trail and had to make a decsion. Should I go onto the 10 Fwy and over to Big Bear on the 330 or 38 or should I go to the Desert and up 18 or something to Holcomb Valley? For some reason I had gotten a 60 degree bearing on Hwy 2 just above Big Pines and thought maybe that was a good signal and he was really out in Johnson Valley. It was a good day for a drive, so I decided to go out to the desert.

At Cajon Summit with a 120 degree bearing (back to Holcomb Valley) now getting sure where to go but not how to get there from here. I chose to go to Lucerne valley. Grabbed some lunch and gas in Lucerne I found the signal due south and left pavement at 2:30 not to return to pavement until 8:30. I went up Grapevine Canyon. It was a fine day for a drive. Got into some loose stuff by the microwave tower and hit the 4WD for about 100 ft, but otherwise it was a good drive up to some now very strong transmitters.

I was the first to find T3 (after all my Angeles Forest travels how could I possibly be the first??). I still did not appreciate that T1 (or anything) was a repeater. My GPS quit and with all the little dirt roads north of Fawnskin, I was getting very confused as to just where I was. I found T2 and took some time to fix the GPS. Didn't help much. I decided to go after T1 as I couldn't hear anything else and after all the dirt, I was getting tired. I found hunters. lots of hunters. Mike/Dave, Deryl, and Bob all hovering around T1 trying to find hammers or rocks or high cliffs to throw the thing off. Dave had found it before I drove up and we talked about the repeating aspects of it. I had been lured twice twice in my travels today by voices coming out of a hidden T, and since the talking Ts are weak, when I hear one I immediately look for it. But didn't appreciate that it was the repeater being activated by hunters (Mike usually). I had concluded that the talking T was mobile and driving around on all these little roads.

Now that my mind was activated into thinking repeater, was the thing I just passed, but not yet sniffed really T1 or was it merely repeating T1 and T1 was lurking nearby. So Dave and I went back (He let me sniff it out) and we examined the repeater and noticed a disconnected dummy load in the pile of stuff. I picked it up and was examining it and threw it back into the pile. Oh MY, I had knocked off a clip lead and the repeater stopped. Honest, and with Dave as my witness, it was an accident. We noticed the AIN T and took a bearing. I hooked the cliplead back up and the repeater started again and we sniffed out the AIN T. It was 40 ft away. No sign of a T1 other than the repeater so that issue was solved.

Deryl had found the repeater before Dave and I went up there and he had gone on up to Butler peak lookout parking place when I accidently turned off the repeater. He then heard his ID coming from a transmitter and got two bearings so when we were coming down from the repeater, he and Bob were going up to find the AIN box (Bob to find the repeater, T1 as well). Spent around an hour at this fine hide spot. Fantastic view of the sunset and a good day for a drive.

I got lost on the way home. I couldn't get to Fawnskin. I made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up with another 20 miles of dirt going out to Hwy 18 at Green Valley Lake. I was such a nice day/night for a drive.

Jippy