April 11th 2009
Pathfinder Hunt


Hiders Story
My "Plan A" to hide in the LA Harbor was nixed due to security concerns
in this Post-911 era so had to go with "Plan B." Last week I hid the
South O.C. SOARA hunt on Avenida La Pata just 1/4 mile south of Avenida
Pico in San Clemente. This gave me an opportunity to check out many new
roads in the somewhat new Talega development. Lots of NO PARKING signs
everyone and 1 choice spot allowed parking up til 6pm so that was out.

Back in the 90s we hid with Sten KD6BXE on the power line roads right on
the county line at the end of La Pata and I recalled that we had an
awesome Santiago Bounce so what the heck let's do it again! Not wanting
to hide alone til midnight we found a high spot above the Talega Valley
floor where we could hear the start point direct a little plus robust
reflections off Santiago, Pleasants Peak, and apparently Sierra which
tricked KD6ICZ into driving towards Corona. Heard N6ZHZ check in from
Lake Matthews and he was hearing me pretty well on that side of the
mountains.



Power was initially about 20 watts into a 4 elem. quad to get back to the
start and we changed that frequently from 5 to 50watts for the first 30
minutes of the hunt.

ICZ and GQO both reported a slight Baldy Bounce next to the turnabout at
the start point but that was an unintended effect of point North. Running
a terrain profile on Topo! the range from Mt. Baldy to the Cajon Pass is
somewhat line of sight and 55 miles away! Keep that in mind for future
hunts. ;)


Results

Team                 Miles  Time                                  
N6AIN/WA6PYE/KG6LSE  70.3   9:36pm  **WINNER**
KE6GQO               72.6  10:50pm
N6MJN,               98.6  10:30pm(took a little sidetrip)
KD6ICZ              100.1  11:00pm
Thanks for coming out,
n6uzs