T-Hunters,
Being out of the country for 24 days in September did not allow much time for a lengthy way out in the county hunt so Greg and I decided to make it fairly close to home. The T-1 location was used by Greg and I during one of the convention hunts many years ago and provided several options for bounces to the north. We ran some tests with a few of the micro's and everything seemed to fit well. We were using 3 set's of micros on 3 different frequencies. When we went to test T-1 we could not get a signal back to Montgomery. We had to abandon the test due to running out of daylight. I went to HRO the next day and purchased a new length of coax hoping that would work?
Hunt Day: Met Greg at 7:30 in the vicinity of T-5 & T-5.5 (the bonus T). Handed off T-2. T-3 & T-4 so he could plant them in Rancho Bernardo. I continued to place T-6, T-7, T-8, T-9 and T-10. Had a problem when I discovered that during the testing we had set up T-7 where T-8 should have been and needed to rummage through my "Bag O' Connectors" to get the right configuration for the antenna I wanted to use. Just at that time Greg calls and says T-2 is not working so he meets me at T-9 to pick up another micro. By the time I get to our T-1 location it's about 9:30, not much time! I set up the tripod and get the 11 ele. yagi put together. Greg shows up and we assemble everything, ready to test at about 9:55. Call KE6PHB for a test and Bill could hear the signal, Greg (RXX) could not and VCR was not at the airport yet. So relief, we are getting a signal out, 5 watts with the yagi at 30 degrees, right towards Palomar. Hunt was a mileage hunt and started at 10:09 AM. After the first 3 teams found T-1 we packed up the equipment and wandered around the hunt area to see what the hunters were doing. About 12:30 Bill, KM6ORF called and said he wanted to join the hunt so we gave him all three frequencies for the micro's and sent him to Black Mt. Park which was kind of in the middle of the hunt area.
Results are below:
VCR & PHB RXX ZM & SCD ORF
T-1 T-1 T-1 T-1
11:04 (23.4) 11:05 (26.4) 12:24 (61.4) DNF
T-2 T-2 T-2 T-2
12:16 (31.3) 12:15 (31.6) 13:36 (67.0) DNF
T-3 T-3 T-3 T-3
13:01 (36.1) 13:01 (37.4) 13:45 (70.1) DNF
T-4 T-4 T-4 T-4
13:42 (41.6) 13:43 (44.3) 14;07 (73) 13:48 (0)
T-5 T-5 T-5 T-5
15:49 (53.1) 15:35 (59.1) 15:24 (89) 14:30 (0)
T-5.5 T-5.5 T-5.5 T-5.
15:46 (52.9) 15:45 (59.1) 15:44 (89) DNF
T-6 T-6 T-6 T-6
14:49 (49.1) 14:08 (48) DNF 14:49 (0)
T-7 T-7 T-7 T-7
16:10 (57.7) 16:24 (66.4) 16:09 (94) 16:05 (0)
T-8 T-8 T-8 T-8
DNF DNF DNF DNF
T-9 T-9 T-9 T-9
16:35 (62.2) 16:43 (70.9) 16:52 (107) 16:44 (0)
T-10 T-10 T-10 T-10
16:58 (66.0) By Default 16:33 (100) 16:34 (0)
Tom & Joe came through with 9/10 T's and 66.0 miles for first place, Greg (RXX type) found 8/10 by actually hunting and one by default (see below) with 70.9 miles, Bill & Robert found 8/10 with 107 miles and Bill (ORF type) with a late start found 6/10 with no mileage, it must have been an "Out of Body" experience for him?
We had to relocate T-7 about 14:30 as no one could hear it that far north and in our haste inadvertently put it in an area with a "No Trespassing/No Loitering" sign. Gregg, KI6RXX was the only one to bring it to our attention so with great humility we gave him a find for T-10 which put him in the running with Tom and Joe but his mileage for the 8 T's that he found was still not enough to proclaim him the winner.... Sorry Greg!
We hope everyone had as much fun hunting as we did hiding?
Joe N6SZO & Greg W6BAF
Photos to follow as I just received a few that I need to incorporate into my files.
