I was trying to decide what area to hide in and how difficult it should be. I had considered two possibilities. It was my wife's suggestion of a third area that I actually picked. We have some friends in the Murrieta area and desided to visit them during the T hide. I wanted to hide a medium difficult hunt so that if there were any football fans they could find the Ts and be home (and rested) for the Superbowl on Sunday. The difficultly would come from the number of Ts. All of the roads were good although the road to T-1 was the most challeging.
I was going to go out the week before and look around but did not get the time. I decided that I could just go out the day before and arrive in the area about 12 to 1 PM which would be plenty of time to find some sites and hide some Ts. I had already been picking out a few sites using the maps I had.
Friday came and I found myself busy with things to do from my second job. I still had to build an attenuator unit and see if I could get another T together (the cricket T). By the time I finished it was 3 PM and didn't arrive in the area until 5 PM. David (KG6KZF) along with my friend from Murrieta departed to look around Margarita Peak. I wanted to run as little power as I could to reach the starting point. I was hoping to give the impression that I was in the Palomar area or beyond (it appears that I was sucessful with a couple of the hunters). I found a place where I could key up the Palos Verdes repeater with a handheld on low power. This spot should work out well. We then drove up 6S07 (and paved!) to Elsinore Peak. Because it was getting so late we didn't take the time to hide the Ts (a mistake).
The next moring we were back at the Margarita Peak area to hide T-1. We arrived at place we had been the night before but found that the propagation was now different. We finally found another site and set up T-1. It was now 9:45. Might as well see if the T could be heard. Since there was no cell coverage here I would have to do it the old fashion way -- by ham radio. I called a few times and could not get a response. Panic time. I desided to go up the road that runs along Margarita Peak. At the end of the road I was able to contact N6MI. He heard the T (whew!) but barely. The signal was also very weak even on the ridge that over looked the T. On the by back I decided to up the power from 10 mW to 4 W. It's never any fun to spend your time hunting for signals instead of transnitters. It wasn't until I was hiding T-4 when I realized that I had added 15 degrees to my map reading to get my compass reading to aim the antenna (should substract 15 from true north). This aimed the antenna at 320 instead of 290 and would explain the weak signal at the starting point.
 T-1 (Main T) |  Looking toward starting point |
 T-1 Antenna | |
On to Elsinore Peak. We found some rocks at the junction where a dirt road took off. I never went down the road (as did some hunters did). We hurriedly hid T4 in a bush out of site of the road but had to fix the old coat hanger beam first. It was vertical and aimed toward High Peak/Palomar. This should lead anyone falling for my T-1 trick back into the area. T-1 could be heard here.
As we drove toward Hwy 74 I saw a place with a couple of dirt roads that overlooked the Elsinore area. This height would help T-3 be heard in a larger area. As it turned out, T-3 could be heard for a mile or so to the north and down in the valley. These 50 mW T have had very unpredictable propagation. T-4 could not be heard here because it was on the other side of Elsinore Peak.
 T-4 Looking toward High Peak/Palomar |
 KG6KZF hiding T-3 |
Down Hwy 74, accross the valley and through the hills was the area I wanted to hide a T. Originally I wanted this T to have a beam pointed toward High Peak/Palomar also but settled for a whip. This was the site for T-5 (RJN T, 4 W).
 T-5 |  T-5 among the rocks |
 T-5 is on the hill | |
Now for T-7 (crickets with KG6KZF voice ID). I needed a site to tie T-4 and T-5 together. We roamed around looking for a high point. The areas I had picked out on the maps ended up not having any public roads. Panic time again. Just then I spotted another hill. Could you get to it? After circling it (as did the hunters) I found a road that when to the top. It had reasonable altitude and a great view of the Elsinore Peak ridge although Temecula and Murrieta were shadowed and Elsinore was behind a hill. T-7 (500 mW) was set up with a 3 element beam at 45 degrees pointed at Murrieta. There was a large flat area just below the peak of the hill. We hid T-6 (50 mW) just over the side at the end of the flat area. This was about 500 feet west of T-7.
 T-7 |
 Looking north west from T-7. T-6 is at the far end of the flat area. |
 T-6 is in the bush |
 The hill where T-7 and T-6 are located |
Just one more T to hide. We headed back toward Murrieta. My friend said he knew of a hill that might work. We arrived at the hill and found that the road to the top was private and desided not to hide there. A little father south east we found a rise on the road that had a still good view and hid T-2 (450 mW - whip) there next to a fence. Finally, all the Ts were hid so we headed for my friend's house.
 T-2 is next to the fence |
 T-2 |
The next morning we headed out to collect the Ts. All of the Ts were still on the air. The only thing of note was T-4. It must have been very windy up near Elsinore Peak as the antenna had fallen over during the night although it could still be heard quite well in the valley.
T-4 when hid |  T-4 antenna after the wind |
It was interesting that four teams found T-7 but not T-6 while they were on the hill. WC6TQQ/WA6TQQ left and found T-5 before returning. N6AIN returned after a few minutes. Two other teams (N6MI & WB6JPI) found T-7 and went home.
From the reports I have received so far it seemed that everyone had a good time. This is the the last of my three hides. Now I can get back to hunting ...