August 31st, 2002 Free For All



Jippy's Story



The Aug 31, 02 Free-For-All was lightly attended, but had a great bunch of hides. Here is my side of the thing...

I hid 6 transmitters, and 5 were found although they were all working to a degree. Three were micro Ts running 10 mw and one was an AF6O box running 3 watts and one was a broke AF6O box running 10 mw and one was a 1 watt handheld with PicCon controller. For once, all of my transmitters ID with their sign in sheet number. 




T-1 Micro T in a bush 50 ft off Piuma Road

N6AIN 



T-1a (w/tones) or Bag T on Saddle Peak Rd

N6AIN

KF6GQ/KD6LAJ

WA6RJN

KG6KZF

N6XFC/N6MJN



T-2 Micro T Near Bag T sign in in TP roll

KF6GQ/KD6LAJ

N6AIN

WA6RJN

G6KZF

N6XFC/N6MJN



T-9 AF6O Box..Couch T on Saddle Peak Road

KF6GQ

N6AIN

WA6RJN

KG6KZF

N6XFC/N6MJN



T-3 Micro T Telephone pole T on Decker road

WA6RJN

N6AIN

N6XFC/N6MJN



T-8 AF6O 10mw box into 10 el beam on Zuniga rd off old Topanga

No Finders





I found 5 transmitters: 

RJN T-1, T-2

XFC T-1, T-2

AIN T-2

Steve and Dave's Story



We met up with everyone at the Cocos restaurant around 9 am. Did the normal chatting and such. We discovered that Dave needed a DC charger for his camcorder he brought so it was decided to find a Best Buy north of us in Thousand Oaks. So, at the departing time as everyone left to go hide, we went up to Best Buy. When we left that location we then pondered were to go. We decided to go up Hwy 23 to a place most hunters have been before. Around the AT&T large dish array around Decker Canyon. T-1 was located on a small hill over looking Decker Canyon and the Ocean, running 1/2 w. T-2 was at the top of Triunfo Pass over looking Thousand Oaks , this was a Micro T, 15 mw. They both were off of Yerba Buena Rd. I thought that a few hiders might have wondered out towards Thousand Oaks to hide a T or two, but no such luck. They were all South of us buy many miles. So, this made it difficult to hear our T's. The thing is though, you could hear one of them in very few specific spots, but with all the other T's on the air, good luck on hearing them. You had to catch it at the right time. Well, after most of us met back at the restaurant and a few clues given out 3 teams found our T's. After driving around for many hours we found 7 T's and heard Don's snake T, high pitch code T and RJN T-1. It's was 5:40 at this time so we needed to head back to Cocos. 

 

We found

JPI  T-1 a, T-2, T-3 and T-9 

AIN  T-2

RJN  T-2

KZF  T

Overall we had a good fun time. Nice to confuse the mind now and again with 12 T's on the air. 


N6XFC Ts



T-1 

WB6JPI 5:15

WA6RNJ 6:10

KG6KZF 7:11



T-2 

WB6JPI 5:31

WA6RJN 6:30

KG6KEF 7:30

Deryl's Story


I hid 2 transmitter but only one worked. The working T was on the north side of Mulhulholland hwy just west of Las Virgenes Rd(N1).



N6AIN Ts



T-1 never came on. It's Dead Jim! 



T-2

WB6JPI         12:35PM

N6XFC/N6MJN    12:38PM

KF6GQ/KD6LAJ    1:00PM

WA6RJN          2:10PM

KG6KZF          5:20PM



I found 8 Ts

JPI T1, T1a, T2, T9, T3

RJN T1, T2

KG6KZF T

Don KF6GQ and Steve KD6LAJ's Story



Our day KD6LAJ and me KF6GQ, started like any other T hunt day, not getting all the sleep that I wanted. We had to leave home early, to make it to the restaurant on time. So we left about 7:45 am.

That got us to the restaurant much too early. So we went looking for a place to put one of our T's. We decided to go north on Las Virgenes rd. There is a park with several trails there, and it looked nice. We would hide one there when we got out of the restaurant.

When we got to the car we heard a JPI T9 on the air. We got into a high location to take a bearing, it was about 110 degrees, so we thought that it had been placed on the part of Muholland Dr. that was dirt. As we approached the restaurant, we found that the bearing had changed to the restaurant (so much for how our day was going to go).

Had breakfast with the crew and left at 10:00am to hide our T's. Because XFC/MJN where right behind us, we felt it would be a dead giveaway if we went north on Las Vergines rd. so we went east on the freeway, going towards the dirt portion of Mullholand.

It seems that they have permanently closed off the road soon after it becomes dirt. So we stopped there and hiked up the hill with a 12V battery and a three watt T. It looked like a good spot because we could see Saddle Peak, and we knew that JPI would hide a transmitter there.

So go to hook up the T and Steve says that the two wires coming from the battery are shorted together. Needless to say, our battery appears dead, so no 3 watt transmitter at this location.

Put out T3 a mini T with a half wave vertical in a bush and put it on. Also left a Snake T about .5 miles away.

As we left we could hear Jippys T from Saddle peak (didn't I say he would hide there). The only good thing was that it was line of sight to Jippys T so someone should hear it. Passed Jippy coming down from Saddle Peak, figured that he had heard our T and was heading for it (wasn't).

Got to the location of the couch T and signed in first. Our T3 was clearly heard from this location, so we where happy that somebody would find the T's.

Found two more of Jippys T's right up the road from the couch T. Soon into the location was AIN, RJN, and RJNs Son in the green VW. We all checked in at about the same time.

As the other teams left to the east, we went west and found an RJN T.

We could hear an AIN T to the west so we went looking for it. Found AIN T next to Muholland Hwy behind some rocks. I think XFC/MJN found this one before us.

Then continued west looking for one other that we thought we heard on the way down Stunt Drive. Finally got a bearing on it on Kannen Dume Rd. just before the tunnels, back over towards 101 frwy. After spending about 4 hours looking, we located it up on the side of a hill in a tree, then had lunch.

Since we hadn't heard any XFC/MJN T's, we thought we would head west on frwy. Got a signal to the south near 1000 oaks, took Lynn to Portola Rd. back to the south east. Only got bounces off of that mountain near Sycamore Canyon Rd., no it can't be up there, not enough signal.

We then started hearing another signal back to the east that we hadn't heard before, so off we went to find this new T. To make a long story shorter, we found the T, it was RJN's T gone amok, but we then noticed that there was another RJN T that we hadn't gotten before and was able to locate that one for a total of seven T's found, and a fun day traveling in the Santa Monica Mts.
Don & Steve


Ts found by Don and Steve



Jippy Sofa T, 

Jippy Bag T, 

Jippy Micro T, 

AIN T 

RJN, T 

Agora school T, 

RJN T hid by Son KG6KZF T



No one found any of Don and Steves Ts.

Doug's Story

This hunt was a little different. I was going to hunt alone and my sons were out on their first solo hunt in the old green bug. The bug was outfitted with the same equipment I used when I hunted in it except for a new "coat hanger" beam.

After breakfast I headed up Stunt to the junction of Saddle Peak and Schueren. I knew this location had a good view toward the Conejo Valley and toward the ocean. I had hidden here on a Conejo Valley T hunt a few years back. I placed T-2 in a bush in a small hill that was between Saddle Peak and a access road. I was running 340 mW into a cliplead antenna. While I was hiding the T I saw JPI go by.

Next was to hide T-1. I choose another Conejo Valley T-hunt site where I had once found a T. This was at the base of a dying eucalyptus tree at the end of Easterly Rd (which runs north-south) next to Agoura HS. T-1 was running about 4 watts into a "coat hanger" mag mount. I had reports that the signal was weak in the vicinity even though I had heard it in several places along Mulholland Hwy between my T-2 and XFC's Ts. The weak signal was probably caused by the chain link fence that surrounded the lot just below the T.

Since I had seen JPI go by when I was hiding T-2, I decided to start hunting farther down Saddle Peak Rd. Upon return to T-2 I found KG6KZF. They had just found it. I proceeded down Saddle Peak to JPI's T1 & T2. I joined the crowd (3 other teams). Father down the road I found JPI's T9. I parked next to JPI's T-3 3 times before I realized it was just hanging there on the power pole in plain sight.

I continued down Saddle Peak looking for another T had heard but lost the signal as I headed toward Toganga Cyn. I headed back up Saddle Peak and found KZF's T (it identified as WA6RJN). He's new at this and hide his T near JPI's T-1 & T-2 after the other teams had been there. I proceeded down to Mulholland Hwy and when as far as Kanan Rd. Hearing no T's, I headed up to the 101 and took it to Toganga Cyn and headed south. Thinking there maybe a T farther east, I tried the Palisades Highlands east of Toganga Canyon but heard only JPI's & RJN Ts.

I returned from that area via Toganga Cyn/Saddle Peak/Stunt/Mulholand Hwy only this time I kept going past Decker and heard XFC's Ts. I drove past T-2 and found XFC's T-1 and back tracked a little until I found T-2 in the rocks.

It was a fun hunt. I just wish I could have heard the other T's. You can't find 'em if you can't hear 'em.



Doug WA6RJN 


Here is the results for my Ts.





WA6RJN T-1





WB6JPI           1:25

KD6LAJ/GQ        2:08         Weak

N6AIN            2:27

KG6KZF           5:50         Nice road





WA6RJN T-2





N6AIN           11:36

KG6KZF          11:52

KD6LAJ/GQ       12:20         OK

N6XFC/N6MJN     12:40

WB6JPI           2:10





KG6KZF   T  (WA6RJN)





N6AIN            1:17

WA6RJN           1:35

XFC/MJN          1:55

KD6LAJ/KF6GQ     4:40             



Ts Doug found

JPI T1, T2, T3, T9

KG6KZF T

N6AIN T2

N6XFC T1, T2



Now all we need is David's story