After hiding the all day hunt up on Palomar, hiders KI6RXX and KG6JEI wanted an easier hunt for the San Diego Group. We chose to hit the repeat button and put on the same hunt as last year in July. A Palomar bounce. This time with a repaired antenna.
On Friday, the plan was to hide 4 transmitters that were on timers. This would leave just the main and one micro on Saturday for hiding and both where close to each other. After driving around, we decided that two of the locations would be better suited with Micros and as I haven’t tested out the timer functions on those yet, the decision was made to hide them on Saturday after the start. On Saturday morning I headed first to the local donut shop so I would have fresh donuts for the hunters as they showed up, then off to Marlado Highlands Park. This is the same location we used last year and we used the photos of our survey markings to put the antenna in the same location and pointed it in the same direction. The only change was that we took Tom’s advice and placed the antenna higher off the ground oh and we repaired it. Apparently last year it had a bad connection to center pin that broke some time during the hunt. Woops!
Just before 10:00 AM, Tom was called to make sure the signal could be heard. Tom says oh good, its in Oceanside and proceeds to give me a heart attack. Crap they will drive straight to us, I’m thinking. Conrad starts screaming in the background that they figured us out and I had to quickly mute the phone hoping Tom didn’t hear as I had him on speaker. After conversing more, Tom says that he has a bearing to the north but hasn’t actually gotten out to get the exact number. After losing connection with him, we spoke to Greg who was calling, apparently unaware we where on the phone with Tom. Greg says a bearing to the north towards Palomar. Oh good, we fooled at least one team; hopefully Tom doesn’t tell them we are in oceanside!! Talk to Tom again who complains that we must be spinning the antenna or varying the power and wants to know what’s the deal. Sounds more like a bounce than a direct signal to oceanside to me that he is hearing. Hmm… Teams advised if they find the main first, we will turn it off to make hearing the others easier.
And they are off. I left to hide the last three micros. To our great amusement all teams start heading up the 15. To our even greater amusement, Tom VCR and his navigator, Bill ZM Team, and Mark and his navigator all head towards Valley Center. Wow is Tom really heading to Palomar? Yep, he sure is! Joe SZO Team and Joe PHB Team both headed to Lilac. Joe and Team correctly determined that it was west and started heading towards us. Robert SCD and Joe PHB started heading east. The Kraken strikes again. Guess there is a learning curve with a new doppler setup or it is not as good at detecting bounces. Meanwhile after playing around Palomar base, Tom heads up Nate Harrison Grade. Bill heads up South Grade then down Nate Harrison. They end up passing each other somewhere in the middle of Nate Harrison Grade. Tom heads all the way up before heading back down. Gee, did Bill not tell him it wasn’t up there? Bill starts heading south on Cole Grade Rd. Where is he going? Tom seems to have figured out it is west and starts heading towards us. Bill finally starts heading our way after a clue from another hunter.
Joe SZO along with Greg BAF and Tim XP where the first to show up to the Main 11:49 AM. Next in was Robert SCD and Joe PHB at 13:15. Mark MHO and his navigator showed up at 14:40. Later in was Bill ZM and his son DUR. Last to arrive after finding a few other transmitters was Tom VCR and Rob LBM. Rob was the only hunter who was able to easily decern the difference between the different T’s. His Mario days came in handy. After all teams had located the main, we packed up and headed out to harass the hunters as they continued looking for the remaining transmitters. The hunt concluded at 5:00 PM and dinner was had afterwards at a local Pizza Place. Tony Pepperoni’s. Nice selection of beer and good Pizza. During dinner the question was posed where the Pac Man T’s where hidden. As I tried to wrap my brain around where they had been placed, I realized that they had not been used. But they could both be heard, I was told. Woops. I never disabled the timers, so they were going off in my vehicle without antennas. Extra credit to the teams that heard them and sorry for the confusion.
Thanks to all who participated and congratulations to the winning team Joe N6SZO, Greg W6BAF, and Tim AJ6XP. They found the most T’s, All but one and also in the least amount of time. Results Below.
