I found a great hiding spot for a single transmitter hide.
Last Monday I called forestry and the road was closed with 6 ft of new
snow and two storms to go before hunt day. So much for plan A.
My back up was a two transmitter hide with a come-on and a
near ground level real transmitter. There was only one place for the
come-on and I went there on Tuesday. I got about 1/2 way to the top and
got mired in mud. With two storms on their way, I scratched this one.
So much for plan B.
A site that I have had in my mind for a couple years was also
under mud due to melting snow. Scratch Plan C.
So here is the hide that actually happened on Feb 27, 2004,
PLAN D.
The main transmitter site was checked out and with the 5
element beam on the 4 runner I could hear the PV repeater bouncing off
of San Gorgornio mountain. A beautiful view from the site. This was
last Tuesday. At 9:30 Saturday morning I set up the 10 element beam at
12 ft pointed at San Gorgonio. The site was chosen to block any direct
path to the start with Target Peak carefully placed in the way. I
couldn't hear the PV repeater. At 9:45 I called Deryl on the cellphone
and he couldn't hear anything at the start although it was running 30+
watts. Switched to H-pole and still nothing. Panic.
I drove to the top of Target Peak, a spot that is normally
capable to get into he start with a hand held. Running 150 watts into
the vertical 5/8s, I could just barely be heard at the start. Anyway,
the basic plan of blocking the direct path was now not in the game,
although some hunters had a direct bearing (64 degrees) and some had 90
degrees (San Gorgonio). The hunt was on, I left Target Peak at 11:00
and hid five additional transmitters.
T2, a microT. on the road to Cinder Cone NW of Target Peak.
T7, The main T, 30W into 10 el E of Target Peak. 34 40.0. 116
40.0
T1, microT on a rough dirt road south of Powerline road West
of micrwave site.
T5, Talking T. at the microwave site SE of Target Peak.
T8, AF6O T. 4el Vert hung from a power tower east 2 miles
from microwave site on Powerline Road
T9, AF6O T. On a turnout on the 40 Fwy 1 mile east of of the
rest stop due north of T8. The 4 el H-pole was pointed at T8. I must
admit that this transmitter was not a fair one as it was on CalTrans
property. Had I moved it about 1 foot it would have been behind the
fence and more fair. The turn out was not posted as "emergency Parking
Only" and I hope no one got hassled by the CHP for hunting there.
The fast route in to the area was to come in from Dagget at
the 40 FWY on RockCamp road, a 60 MPH dirt road swing a left to Cinder
Cone and a right around Target Peak. From my house, about 107 miles and
2 hours. Pick up Powerline Road and go east with small side trips to
find T1 and up to the microwace site for T5. Exiting Power line road at
the 40 FWY, Back toward Barstow, snatching T9 along the way. However,
there was no signal anywhere near Dagget or on Rock Camp Road, so you
wouldn't have gone that way. The ideas was to get up to try to come up
through Johnson valley and all of its not so dry lakes. I think most of
you did just that.
Here are the results:
GQ/LAJ T7,T1,T5,T8,T9 For 5 found
211 miles...WINNER
SNE
T7,T5,T8,T9 For 4 found 215 miles
IDF/GWV T7,T5,T8,T9 For 4
found 218 miles
RJN/KZF T7,T5,T8,T9
For 4 found 223 miles
TQQ/TNJ T7,T1,T8,T9 For 4
found 312 miles
NYW/MI
T7,T5,T8 For 3
found 225 miles
AIN/EKS T7,T5,T9
For 3 found 290 miles
Now here we are in the high desert (4500 ft with another 1000
for the microwave site) and no snow, little mud, beautiful day, bright
and sunny and most everyone on the hunt complained about the cold. No
one complained about the lack of signal (sorry about that).
Bob, WB6JPI
Don's Story
David and Melanie's Story
Deryl and Ray'sStory