It didn't start good...not bad, just not good. The Delorme GPS wouldn't
come on although it had run fine on Friday when I installed it on the 4Runner.
You just can't leave the thing out in the dew or rain or carwash. It did come on
eventually, about 5PM...not much use. I had the StreetPilot backup but it
doesn't have near the roads as the Delorme. The radios don't seem very
sensitive. They hear but not as well as other hunters and I used to hear
better...gotta find which cable is full of water or whatever. Maybe a new
preamp. Did hear two transmitters T1 and T5 at the start, both had a bearing of
10 degrees so off to Hwy2 I went using the GPS shortest distance to wander
through LA. Up and over the hill and not until the Palmdale reservoir overlook
did I get a decent bearing. Gas and food in Mojave and off up Hwy 14.
I was videoing a nice rainbow ending in rainbow canyon when Mike comes
whizzing by on the road. Nice picture though. Too far up 14 and turned around to
get on the Garlock cutoff. Heard the talking transmitter and I shifted into
some daze that led me astray for the next several hours.
I went up Iron Canyon. I knew that there was a transmitter hidden at
Schmidt Tunnel, but somehow the old broken memory cells from 25 years ago when
Don hid there kicked in and up the wrong road I went. Once there, I convinced
myself that the transmitters were not near Schmidt tunnel but were up here
somewhere. Bad roads.
Finally gave up and went west and got on a road that went to Schmidt tunnel
and found the tunnel. Walked through and found the talking T, the first one in.
I then drove up the hill and found another T. Tried to find the one to the north
IDing T11 but gave up when all were going to dinner, a far better
idea.
As I had come into the Schmidt area on a different road, I missed several
other Ts and was too involved thinking of dinner to bother on the way
out.
I am really unhappy about these major hunts being dependent upon the
quantity of transmitters and not on any required navigation skills. I don't
think that hunts that prove tenacity are the proper thing to be measuring or
testing. An occasional free-for-all is adequate to demonstrate finding lots of
transmitters all on the same frequency,. and the allday series should be
reserved for tricky navigation, unmapped roads, strange radio phenomena, etc and
not just a lot of transmitters scattered around.