W6BAF had some ideas for this hunt, wanted to be in "East County". The Recon eliminated several spots, some due to development. The general location we picked was on our list for placing micro-T's along the way further east for an upcoming County-Wide at a future time. When I arrived a man approached me and asked me what I was doing....?
He said this particular Cul de Sac was private property. After discussing with Al the fact that he did not have any signs at the entrance to his private Cul-de Sac and explaining the evening's mission along with presenting him with a trusty "Tri-Fold" he seemed to be OK with the idea. When we told him we were Geologists we pacified him by explaining the landscape to him as he seemed to to be very curious about his property! We told him to come back later and started to set up the equipment and immediately noted not one but TWO battery failures. One in the deep cell battery I had brought for the 2-M Amp. Second was my gel cell was less than 12 volts and shut down the radio when attempting to transmit..... Crap....
Well luckily, in my "Bag of Connectors & Tricks", I had a cigarette lighter plug that I could power the radio with so we were back in business. We thought we would need the full 50 watts for our plan. Started testing with 5 watts and no one could hear it, up to 10 and it was down in the mud but some could hear it so up to 25 W and everyone was happy? Settled down and dialed up the APRS to see what was happening. PHB & ZM were just a few miles from us around 5:30 and RXX & JEI were in Crest. ORF & SCD still showed at the college so gave them a call to see what was happening, they were going to try to get APRS working. At some point after that Al and his son came up to see how we were doing. We had told him once we got set up we would explain to him how our set up worked. During that time apparently my car battery was failing and we realized that the signal had been off the air! SORRY ABOUT THAT ! Started the Explorer and got the signal up again and then noticed that Greg and Conrad were in the Jamul area so we bumped up the power to 50 W to try to get them back closer to the transmitter. Time was passing, Mark, K6MHO reported that he and Tim, AJ6XP were in El Cajon. ORF & SCD were in Blossom Valley and PHB & ZM were in Harbison Canyon...... now it is 7:00 PM. No one had found us yet. Confirmed that we would be dining at BonGiovanni's on old Hwy 80 and started taking down the equipment. 7:15, ORF and SCD arrive...What the ____? Oh, I had forgot that I had put out a magnetic T-Hunt sign at the entrance to this Cul de Sac as a hint to where we were, didn't think they had used the two micros that we had set up when everyone arrived to actually find us. Even though it was dark I had to swear them to a "Vow of "Silence" so as not to give this location away as it has "Awesome Potential" for future hunts. Karen, KI6FON, Greg's (W6BAF) wife joined us for dinner and by the time we left BonGiovanni's we were the only ones in the dining room, nice ending.
See attached photos from the hiders perspective.
Joe, N6SZO & Greg, W6BAF
