Results of the San Diego

 National T-Hunt Weekend

Hunt

 

Thanks to the eight teams that came out for the Big Hunt Saturday, I think most everyone had a good time although there were some problems along the
way.
 

I had gone out two weeks before to scout out some sites and with everything ready to go and with help from Gerry, KB6WZC and his wife Brenda, we started out Friday putting out the T's only to find that the Mesa Grande Indians had erected some new "keep out" signs that wiped out my spot for the final T. We had planned on camping out Friday night at the Old Mine road location but the weather was getting cold and windy so we went down the mountain to the campground at Yaqui pass, much warmer and the trees at the campground blocked the wind nicely. Saturday morning back on top we went looking for another replacement spot as time was working against us. We found the T2 site above Lake Southerland and set up the T and turned it on at 9:30 leaving me to get to the final spot and Gerry to go to T1 and turn it on at 10AM.

 

I was late getting setup but it didn't matter much as two of the T's were being heard at the start point. Gerry was having a problem with T1 and called Tom, VCR on the phone to resolve the problem and it seemed to be working fine until around 11AM when it dropped off the air. Gerry had moved on to the finish point and I didn't think it was worth sending him back to T1 for a fix as we had no idea how to repair it. I don't think it had any negative impact on the overall results as no one had as yet found it.

 

After that, it was just a matter of waiting until we heard or saw the first of the hunters arrive.

 

Chuck, KD6RSQ was first on the scene climbing straight up the hill from the lower road, he and Paul, KE6VK were driving back and forth trying to find the correct way up. Chuck had only found T2 so Paul was the first in with all of the T's and also low mileage of 103.2 with no time penalty. Most of the others came in soon after, all walking the last 100 yards due to cars in the way and the low overhanging branches.  Paul took home a nice dual-band base antenna that was donated by Tom from the San Diego Ham Radio Outlet. I provided a dual-band mobile antenna for second place the was won by WB6JPI from Los Angeles but he said that he had plenty of them so he donated it to third place.

 

I was too tired to pick up all of the T's so I went on home and went back on Sunday to pick them up. Thanks to all that came out, it was a lot of fun for me and Gerry and Brenda, it was her first ever T-hunt and she is now hooked.

 

Jerry, K6DYD

Pictures