Quad roadkill
Peter and Paul Ronney, 9/27/14

Peter and I drove from home towards Cajon Pass and while on the way got a call that the bearing
from Pathfinder was about 340°.  We decided to continue to Cajon Pass and got a modest signal
with bearing of about 330°, which turned out to be just about right.  We decided to drive up US
395 rather than cutting across SR 138 in order to get more angle for triangulation to help us
decide how far away the transmitter was.  Even from Kramer Junction the signal hadn’t deviated
much to the west so we continued north to Randsburg where the signal was getting stronger and
the deviation was suggesting Jawbone Canyon.  We stopped for a bit to explore some abandoned
mines in the Randsburg area.


We headed west on the Redrock - Randsburg road towards SR 14 and the signal started to
disappear, which wasn't surprising considering where we thought the transmitter was.
On that road Peter was complaining about the wind noise. (My 2008 Grand Cherokee has
a moon roof, so when we started T-hunting with that vehicle, we built a Plexiglas insert
for the moon roof cutout to hold the antenna mast.)  The antenna was a 4-element quad
built years ago by my father WA6FAT SK.  Peter tried to push some paper between the
antenna mast and the through-hull fitting to cut down on wind noise, but he pushed
a little too hard and dislodged the insert from the moon roof guide rails that hold the
insert’s clamping system in place.  Immediately the entire assembly – quad, mast, moon roof
insert, even the Azden radio blew out of the roof.  The Adzen caught on something and the
coax broke off, but the rest of the assembly was lying in pieces on the highway.


The Damage Control Officer determined that the Plexiglas insert was a total loss, having
broken in several pieces.  The front director element of the quad had broken off, as had
the base of the mast but the driven element, reflector element and first director element
were intact.  We could use the antenna, but could not mount it on the roof so we threw it
in the back seat of the Cherokee.  A quick search of tools and supplies revealed no soldering
iron, wire strippers or even duct tape (not very smart, eh?) but we did have a hobby knife
and found a non-essential device wrapped in electrical tape, so we stripped the coax with
the knife, jammed the coax center conductor into the Azden coax antenna connector and used
the repurposed tape to secure the coax shield to the shell of the connector.  Of course
with this setup we had to stop and get out of the Cherokee every time we wanted to get a
bearing, but Peter was very excited about kludging something together and continue hunting
rather than just giving up.


At that point we didn’t hear a signal, which wasn’t surprising considering Jawbone Canyon
was our target and the El Paso mountains were blocking our path, but we weren’t sure how
bad our antenna and connection were.  We could communicate with our handheld radio at
close range so we knew it worked at least somewhat.  We couldn’t contact any hunters which
gave us less confidence we had a viable setup.

We spent way too much time in the Red Rock Canyon area trying to get to the top of Gold
Mountain and hearing nothing… so finally we decided to continue up Jawbone Canyon Road
towards Piute Peak.  At about the 7000’ level we FINALLY heard a signal, but it was
pointing slightly west of south, which led us to conclude the T was in the Tehachapi
area (Peter was hoping for the Tehachapi Loop).  We congratulated ourselves on at least
having a huntable signal with our kludge.  A little higher up we started getting really
strong signals in the Piute Peak area so we spent way too much time (getting out in the
FREEZING weather to take a heading each time) with the signal continuing to point
slightly west of north.  But the signal just kept getting stronger and stronger as we
headed up Saddle Springs Road towards Bodfish.  Each time we were sure the T was just
around the corner, a definitive bearing told us to go north.

We pulled into Lake Isabella for gas and food around 9:00 pm, and we had super strong
signals toward Shirley Peak, but it was getting too late for Peter considering the 3
hour drive home, so as much as we wanted to find the T with our makeshift rig, we had
 to call it a night.

Since my father WA6FAT built that quad and used it for years, we’re going to restore
it using as much of the original material as possible… and come up with a new moonroof
insert design that can’t slip out!  (Though we had used that system for several years
with no problem… until today.)