Being that it was Thanksgiving weekend, I didn’t think that too many hunters would be able / willing to come out on a transmitter hunt. How wrong I was! We had seven teams come out and only space on sign in sheets for six! Lynn KA6TAS and myself KF6GQ set the T’s out. We used our e-bikes to ride to each placement spot. We picked an area that would be more qualified as a mini hunt distance wise and time wise. We chose the Newport Back Bay area, as we spend time camping here with our RV camping group twice a year. We have ridden our bicycles to these locations used for the hide, over the years. So I set up the main T, originally running 1.5 watts to my T hunt antenna, but apparently that wasn’t enough to be heard at starting point. I placed a Mirage handheld amp in line with the antenna, and was running 7-8 watts output. This was heard without difficulty with many bearings around the compass. The bearing should have been almost due south. Apparently, all hunters got on with the southerly bearing, because most came in with similar mileage. The mileage portion of this hunt was going to be taken as from the miles at each T minus the miles indicated at the first T to be found (this turned out to be T7) which was the main T. We set up in the parking lot adjacent to the Newport Dunes beach area. Besides the main T, we place 4 T’s around the back bay area. Now I was aware that many T’s have been hidden in the Back Bay area over the years, but most of those would be T’s running several watts of power, my four T’s where MicroHunt T’s running about 50 mili watts. I have been asked from several of the hunters of who the manufacture is. I got mine from: RobertSimmons <pelican2@silcom.com> Well this link does not seem to work anymore. I know the last time I was working with him, he said he was going to have to change out his web provider, I guess it hasn’t happened yet. He is in Orcutt, Ca. And his call is WB6EYV.
To get on with the hunt, Time and mileage was taken from first T found, this turned out to be T7 for all hunters. The first to arrive at T7 was the Team of N6MI and AF6O. They and all except one team went to the parking lot across the little beach bay for Newport Dunes. Meaning they crossed the footbridge across the bay. It’s a nice walk, if you're not in a hurry. Paul WB6HPW and his ride along Seth N6PL Parked on Back Bay Drive, which everyone later found out had to be driven, (one way!) to find two of the T’s. This was part of the plan. Some T’s could easily be passed by before realizing that they passed the T and no going back! However, I did notice that many did carefully back down the road!
So, we had four teams that found all 5 of the T’s. WB6HPW team, Greg KI6RXX , Tom K6VCR and Scot KA6UDZ. We had one team find 4 T’s. Doug WA6RJN, and we had two teams only find 3 T’s, this was Ron WA6CYY and Scott N6MI with Jim AF6O. Now I know why Ron only found 3 T’s, it was because he couldn’t walk anymore because on bad knees that are only getting worse! What happened to the Dynamic duo, Scott and Jim? I can tell you this, I said on the original notice for this hunt, that all antennas will be vertical, and I mentioned at T7 again that all signals are vertical! What did I see at one of the parking areas that was close to a T, their main hunt antenna is horizontal! Then instead of investing in a capable sniff system, what do they use, Dang Bang body shielding! How old fashion!
Back to results. Since the mileage was taken between first found T and last found T, we find that WB6HPW team had 26.8 miles, KI6RXX had 20.6 miles, K6VCR had 17.5 miles and KA6UDZ had 15 miles, so great going Scot KA6UDZ for getting the first place position of the hunt, and K6VCR gets the win for coming in second!!!!! Yea, Yea, and Yea. Honorable mention goes to the teams of KI6RXX and WB6HPW!
It was fun watching all the hunters at some point in the hunt, going after the T’s, so we enjoyed the hide as much as I hope the hunters did also. The only thing I was put off about was that I had to go back today (Sunday) to pick up two of the transmitters that were never found by the last team out (I won’t mention what team it was) but I think that I wouldn’t have had to go back if someone had a real sniffer!
Lynn KA6TAS & Don KF6GQ thanks you all for coming out for this Thanksgiving hunt.
