I have a list of places that I like plan to hide based on continuous research but heat, heat, and more heat ruled them all out. Then came the rain that ruled out some of the trails of the cooler locations so the beach it was. We decided to hide down on Fiesta Island in San Diego. The goal was an easier hunt and we had planned a dinner location afterwards, I picked Fiesta Island because I knew it had been used before on an all-day hunt so I didn’t need a lot of testing to see if it would work.
The original plan was to bounce a single off the Catalina Island, but I decided that might make the hunt way to simple as my perception was that the hunters would drive west towards Catalina Island and as they hit the I5, they would start heading south towards us. So instead, we decided to point or signal more easterly towards Santiago Peak hoping to get some bounces there and then potential reflections more towards the 15. If we can get the hunters to drive down the 15 instead of taking the 5, it would sure make it a lot more difficult for them to figure out that we were on the coast. We started out talking with N6MI, who had a bearing that was more south western, however, not exactly on us (orange bearing in the map below). Then we chatted with Tom who had arrived late to the starting point. Unfortunately to our great surprise Tom had a bearing that was dead spot on to the blue pinpoint GPS location on my map (the red bearing on the map below). Boy we did everything we could in our power to get VCR's bearing to change, including pointing the antenna more easterly and adjusting the powerup and down. Nothing worked and Tom still had a spot-on bearing!
Unfortunately, traffic was starting to pile up on the 5 and became stop and go and it took most of the hunters three or more hours to get down to us. For the most part they seemed to drive straight here. One hunter reported hearing a straight signal in orange county somewhere but soon realized it wasn’t ours so they continued heading south. Tom must have stopped somewhere along the way to avoid the traffic because they didn’t get here till almost 5:00PM. Unfortunately, APRS wasn’t working the whole time for VCR, so we couldn’t see the detours they took might have took. Also, surprisingly they had fairly low mileage, considering how long it took them to get to us. I think they left later from the start hitting more traffic than the rest of the hunters.
One transmitter was up on Mt. Soledad, a high point in San Diego cost in La Jolla, but this proved to be difficult for the hunters to hear is they headed south and most of them missed it. The main was next on Fiesta Island. Another transmitter was located further south at Presidio Park. Three hunters heard this and found it. Three of the transmitters were located on Coronado at a park and off the silver strand at another park. The last two where located at Marina View Park.
After the hunt started, I was off to hide the rest of the transmitters and to my surprise N6MI was already in Camp Pendleton before I had them all. I only had half of them hidden so it was time to rush! One of my spots didn't work out so time to find another. As I hid the transmitters, Conrad was at the main on Fiesta Island, giving me signal reports from the Omni antenna on his truck. He could hear every transmitter I placed, although somewhere very weak, except for the one on Mt. Soledad. I think weather and local interference may have been causing that one to be hard to hear. Up on the mountain it was above the cloud level. Tom heard it and drove up to the mountain twice but they sat there and thought it was down by the bay instead of actually on the mountain so they drove back down the mountain away from it, and never signed in, N6MI heard it on the way up north, but decided not to go look for it as he was done for the day and tired. N6MI got to the location of T1 and T3.14 but decided to leave as he felt unconfutable with the crowds.
Thanks to all the teams who came out and hunted. Hope you all had fun and apologies for the traffic that seemed to only get worse as the day went on. Looking forward to the next one from hiders Kilo India Six Romeo X-Ray X-Ray, and Kilo Golf Six Juliet Eco India.
Congratulation to team N6MI and AF6O winners with the lowest milage and most found. They get to hide the January 2023 All Day!
T19 Too Gun Main T at Fiesta Island
T37 Indiana Jones up on Mt Soledad
T64 Ms. Pac Man at Presidio Park
T46 Mr. Pac Man at Coronado Tidelands Park
Voice at at Coronado Shoreline Park
T99 Mario at Coronado Shoreline Park
T1 Mario at Marina View Park
T 3.14 at Marina View Park
