Hunt results have been rather intermittent for the last couple of months. I was getting ready to go on the August hunt. About a week before, I was informed that I had won the previous hunt and was the hider for August. Starting on Tuesday, I began to plan my strategy.
I recalled that on a few hunts when the hider ran a lot of power. The signal reflected off every hill and canyon making it more difficult to find. I decided to pick a site on the north side of the San Gabriels and then point toward Mt Baldy. That should get the signal to the starting point a provide a great amount of bouncing. I searched for a site south of Palmdale on the edge of the bluff that runs north of the 15 as it bends east past Cajon.
Buttemere Rd off of Phelan Rd looked like a route to the bluff area. I found a place to the just west of Buttemere south of Mission Rd. There I set up T1 pointed toward the north side of the Mt Baldy area using a 15 element beam running 80 watts. This would definitely not be a hidden signal hunt.
I had the same idea for T2. I enjoy watching trains so I picked a site where two railroads meet east of Hesperia. At the south end of Escondido Ave there is a road that goes southwest to a bluff that overlooks both railroads. There I set up T2 using a 3-element beam running 20 watts and pointed at the Crestline area. That should provide some more interesting bouncing as well.
The result of T1’s position worked far better than I had planned. I only wanted to use the reflections to make it a little more difficult to find T1, not to confuse all the hunters for the entire day. I thought once the hunters came off the mountain, they would hear T1 directly and find it. As it turns out, T1 couldn’t be heard directly until the hunter was close to it.
About 8PM, after giving out a clue (the word “buttemere”) to MI/6O & RXX/VCR (HPW/PL did not want the clue) MI & RXX found T1. After another clue (the word “Escondido”), MI/RXX teams arrived at T2 around 10PM.
The MI/6O team retired but the RXX/VCR team continued after a third clue (“north”). Meanwhile HPW/PL continued searching in the area quite near T1.
I started to pick up the remaining Ts. I was at T7 (4 watts into a J pole) that was located on the flat in a field at Mariposa and Eucalyptus. There I encountered RXX/VCR finding the T.
MI/6O and HPW/PL had started the journey home as did RXX/VCR did also. I went on to collect the remaining T3, T4, and T11 Ts.
T1 was all that was left. I just exited I15 at Main St (which becomes Phelan Rd) at about 1AM. Seeing the Holiday Inn, I decided to stay the night. T1 was picked up the next morning, still bouncing signals of the mountains.
In all, the hide would have resulted in a no-find scenario if a street name was not given out. Who wants to go on a stressful, frustrating hunt where the hunters return empty handed? After finding T1, the day’s readings and signal strengths should have made sense. The hunt was far more difficult than I had planned.
Results
Team T1 T2 T7
KI6RXX/K6VCR 8:03 9:47 11:00
Winners! 129 144 157
N6MI/AF6O 8:07 9:53
176 190
WB6HPW/N6PL DNF
FROM HPW:
Sometimes you’re the windshield, and sometimes you’re the bug.
On Saturday, Paul and Seth were bugs.
Clueless bugs, as it turned out.
