FFA April 29, 2006
WB6JPI
It was a beautiful day. I left the house about 7:30, loaded up with a few
gallons of gas at $3.1299 and arrived at Temecula around 8:30. Checked out the
area west of town and south of Rancho California Rd. with lots of hills valleys
and many, many places to hide. Arrived at breakfast with the bunch and had some
very good French Toast and coffee.
Left the restaurant and placed 10 transmitters in about a square mile.
Finished around 11:15 and then noticed that I still had the sign in sheet for
T10 in the car. Best go and put it with the transmitter before someone has to
make their own. So before hunting, I went to find my own transmitter. I couldn't
hear it. Strange as it was a 50 watt transmitter into a two element collinear at
1700 ft. Should be able to hear it everywhere.
I had trouble with it when I put it in as it had a short in the mic cable
that caused the radio to shut down. I had carefully put the Kenwood TM 241A in
its small ammo can with the big 12 volt 120AH deep discharge marine battery
alongside. I guess it broke again.
Now I marked all my transmitters with waypoints on two GPS systems, the
DeLorme mapping and the Garmin MapSource. I found that the Garmin did not record
the waypoints but there they were on the DeLorme map. I drove to each one (I
didn't have time to anoint each waypoint with the transmitter number so I didn't
know which one was T10). I couldn't find it. I couldn't hear it. I asked
everyone I saw, and no one had seen or heard it. It was then I noticed that I
only had nine waypoints on the DeLorme map, not 10. Guess which one is
missing? Houston, I think we have ..
I had one more trick. The DeLorme keeps track of where I have been and I
can get it to retrace its steps. I couldn't remember how to do this and while I
was flailing around trying to get it to run the course I managed to erase the
waypoints for the nine hidden transmitters. But I got it running and traced my
steps from home to Temecula and on to the course. I found it!!! It was broke so
I loaded it into the car and went off hunting for all of those other peoples
transmitters. It was now 3:30. Between 3:30 and 5:00 I found 8 transmitters all
on the west side of Temecula and south of Rancho California.
The most interesting one was Scotts up on the hill about an empty pad. I
couldn't climb the culvert as it was too slippery, but I knew it was up there
and conned Don/Steve into signing me in. But right in the middle of the pad
where everyone who found Scotts transmitter was a pile of junk and hanging on
the lawn chair was my microT, T3. It was there before Scott hid his and he must
have come with 10 ft of it as did several other hunters on there way to Scott's
loudness. Scott didn't even get it when he picked his up.
Tony loved the many voices of T7, the 30 watt transmitter at the water
tank. Judging from how discharged the battery was, I doubt it is still running
30 W, but it was loud and there. Across the street from T7 was T9 which most
folk missed including Don/Steve even after I told them they missed
it.
Well comes 5:00 and time to pick them up. I had no waypoints and was
running from memory and T-hunting. I did good getting 8 of the nine rather fast
but T1, a microT was out there and not transmitting. I hunted until about 7:00
when I broke for dinner. I had to be in Hemet on Sunday, so I decided I would
pick it up then and had a nice dish of Spaghetti and meatballs. I got home about
10:30 after spending 30 min pumping up my low tire.
It can sit for days and not lose a lb, but go on a hunt and it goes flat in
about an hour. Also, I can't shut the 4runner off as it has some kind of vapor
lock condition and I can restart it for an hour or so. It also has a steering
tracking issue and really is bucking in the rear on some of these dirt roads. I
have made a list: 4 wheel alignment, rotate the tires and fix the slow leak, new
shocks in the rear and off to Toyota for the vapor lock issue.
Here is my summary: ( of course, I recorded the lat/long when I picked them
up...)
T1 No one found it. ( I found it on Sunday right where I left
it).
T2 microT Rt side of Rancho California 33 29.866, 117 10.938
AIN, KTP, VCR
T3 microT in lawn chair rt side of Rancho California. below MI. 33 30.188,
117 11.196
AIN, GQ, VCR
T4 microT Golf Course W end of Avenida del oro 33 30.088, 117
12.725
GQ
T5 talking T Sunset terr & Calle Vista Lejos, 33 28.946, 117
10.860
AIN, GQ, VCR, DWL
T6 PICON/D1, Sunday Drive 33 29.243, 117 10.688
DWL
T7 PICON/30W Water Tank, 33 28.811, 117 11.066
AIN, GQ, DWL, VCR, ACI
T8 AF6O BOX, Sycamore &Calle Vista Lejos, 33 29.246, 117
10.991
VCR, DWL
T9 AF6O Box, Water Tank 33 28.811, 117 11.066
ACI
T10 broke