All Night Transmitter Hunt
Hiders: Don KF6GQ and Steve KD6LAJ
Here is The story
Location of main T N 35.1361 W 117.260
After visiting Black Mountain Black Canyon northeast of Barstow, Ca. area in February with my wife KA6TAS, I found several places in the area that would make a good hide. We thought that we would make the hunt a little more than just a conventional hide. This area has several Geo-cache locations, and some native American petroglyphs. We chose several of the T-hide spots at these locations.
The main T, T3 KF6GQ, was set up on a little knoll, within Black Canyon, with line of sight to the San Gabriel mountains through a saddle of a ridge about a mile in front of the antenna. Hopefully this would get a signal to the start point without herculean efforts. Also if successful, would cause some hunting difficulties to the hunters as they approached the area. T3 had a 14 element beam, running about 10 watts. I asked N6AIN if he would get up to the start point early enough so we could test the location and power requirements necessary for the signal. At the appointed time we started calling Deryl, with no response, we have no cell service anywhere in the canyon, so I could check to see if a signal could be heard. I continued to call still with no call back. So we moved up to the very top of the knoll to continue calling. Well, it seems that Deryl got a bit sidetracked and forgot that I was to have this test! After about 10 min. Of calling Deryl finally called back. He told me that I could be heard at the start with no problem So we moved all the stuff back to the original location and set the power level back down to 10 watts. The report was the signal was still copyable at the start. So we left it that way.
After we set up the main T, we went to find the first Geo-Cache, so we could hide a T near it. This should be the first T that will be found by the hunters, if they come in from Hinkley. As we left the main T, we went in front of the beam pattern, and noticed that the signal went down into the noise, as we rounded a couple of corners away from the main T. This canyon just sucks up the RF from the transmitters.
So we need a layout of the rest of the T's so the next one in line would be able to be heard from the last found. All the transmitters were hidden along Black Canyon Road. We put out six T's the last being at Inscription Canyon, an protected area that has many Petroglyphs. We hid a T on the plateau above the Petroglyphs. If you checked out the Glyphs, you would of noticed one of them stood out more than the rest, because if has been done recently, it is a schematic of a variable capacitor. We placed the T directly above this particular Glyph!
About 2 pm. We left the canyon to see if we could get into a cell site, and contact the hunters. I had luck in getting hold of 4 of the teams hunting. Deryl seemed to be the closest, he was driving north on Hinkley Rd. We figured he was about 1 hour out. He was the first to get to the area. We proceeded to follow him as he went to find each of the hidden T's. About half way we bumped into N6MI and his ride along Jack. They had come into the area the back way, over some real nasty back roads over the volcanic hills. So they had seen the Petroglyphs and checked into our talking T "NO LAVA LAVE ROCK" T. This one had been put out also as a stepping stone to link the Petroglyph T with the in canyon T's.
At this time I'm waiting for N6MI to send me the sign in sheet of T8 the last one he found, and the first one all others found. Jippy called in about 4:00pm to tell us he was quitting, not being able to hear signals very far from each other, he must have been in the same canyon as us! He indicated that he hadn't seen a paved road for the last several hours, well neither had we!
Bob N6ZHZ was the last to get to the area, and we followed him in to pick up the T's as he found them. He found the last about 8:30pm. It took us about 1.5 hours to get back to Barstow for a meal, before heading home. See T-hunt site for some pictures.
Results:
Location of main T N 35.1361 W 117.260
After visiting Black Mountain Black Canyon northeast of Barstow, Ca. area in February with my wife KA6TAS, I found several places in the area that would make a good hide. We thought that we would make the hunt a little more than just a conventional hide. This area has several Geo-cache locations, and some native American petroglyphs. We chose several of the T-hide spots at these locations.
The main T, T3 KF6GQ, was set up on a little knoll, within Black Canyon, with line of sight to the San Gabriel mountains through a saddle of a ridge about a mile in front of the antenna. Hopefully this would get a signal to the start point without herculean efforts. Also if successful, would cause some hunting difficulties to the hunters as they approached the area. T3 had a 14 element beam, running about 10 watts. I asked N6AIN if he would get up to the start point early enough so we could test the location and power requirements necessary for the signal. At the appointed time we started calling Deryl, with no response, we have no cell service anywhere in the canyon, so I could check to see if a signal could be heard. I continued to call still with no call back. So we moved up to the very top of the knoll to continue calling. Well, it seems that Deryl got a bit sidetracked and forgot that I was to have this test! After about 10 min. Of calling Deryl finally called back. He told me that I could be heard at the start with no problem So we moved all the stuff back to the original location and set the power level back down to 10 watts. The report was the signal was still copyable at the start. So we left it that way.
After we set up the main T, we went to find the first Geo-Cache, so we could hide a T near it. This should be the first T that will be found by the hunters, if they come in from Hinkley. As we left the main T, we went in front of the beam pattern, and noticed that the signal went down into the noise, as we rounded a couple of corners away from the main T. This canyon just sucks up the RF from the transmitters.
So we need a layout of the rest of the T's so the next one in line would be able to be heard from the last found. All the transmitters were hidden along Black Canyon Road. We put out six T's the last being at Inscription Canyon, an protected area that has many Petroglyphs. We hid a T on the plateau above the Petroglyphs. If you checked out the Glyphs, you would of noticed one of them stood out more than the rest, because if has been done recently, it is a schematic of a variable capacitor. We placed the T directly above this particular Glyph!
About 2 pm. We left the canyon to see if we could get into a cell site, and contact the hunters. I had luck in getting hold of 4 of the teams hunting. Deryl seemed to be the closest, he was driving north on Hinkley Rd. We figured he was about 1 hour out. He was the first to get to the area. We proceeded to follow him as he went to find each of the hidden T's. About half way we bumped into N6MI and his ride along Jack. They had come into the area the back way, over some real nasty back roads over the volcanic hills. So they had seen the Petroglyphs and checked into our talking T "NO LAVA LAVE ROCK" T. This one had been put out also as a stepping stone to link the Petroglyph T with the in canyon T's.
At this time I'm waiting for N6MI to send me the sign in sheet of T8 the last one he found, and the first one all others found. Jippy called in about 4:00pm to tell us he was quitting, not being able to hear signals very far from each other, he must have been in the same canyon as us! He indicated that he hadn't seen a paved road for the last several hours, well neither had we!
Bob N6ZHZ was the last to get to the area, and we followed him in to pick up the T's as he found them. He found the last about 8:30pm. It took us about 1.5 hours to get back to Barstow for a meal, before heading home. See T-hunt site for some pictures.
Results:
T8 GeoCashe Team time Miles N6AIN 4:30PM 239.6 WA6RJN 5:53PM 211.1 N6ZHZ 6:42PM 204.1 N6MI/N6LN 7.25PM 189.1 WB6JPI DNF T3 MAIN T N6AIN 4:50PM 240.7 WA6RJN 6:05PM 212.1 N6MI/N6LN 6:55PM 188.0 N6ZHZ 7:04PM 205.5 WB6JPI DNF T2 KD6LAJ N6AIN 5:28PM 243.5 N6MI/N6LN 6:20PM 183.8 WA6RJN 6:50PM 214.9 N6ZHZ 7:45PM 207.9 WB6JPI DNF T "Stupid Rocks" Geocashe N6AIN 5:45PM 244.5 N6MI/N6LN 5:48PM 182.8 WA6RJN 7:03PM 215.9 N6ZHZ 8:00PM 209.0 WB6JPI DNF T "Not a Lava Lava Rock" N6MI/N6LN 5:30PM 180.0 N6AIN 6:14PM 246.6 WA6RJN 7:39PM 218.9 N6ZHZ 8:30PM 210.9 WB6JPI DNF T Capactor near Petroglyphs N6MI/N6LN 4:30PM 175.0 N6AIN 6:40PM 250.9 WA6RJN 8:15PM 221.8 N6ZHZ 9:15PM 214.2 WB6JPI DNF End Mileage N6MI/N6LN 189.1 N6ZHZ 214.2 WA6RJN 221.8 N6AIN 250.9 WB6JPI DNF Winners N6MI Scott and N6LN Jack
Jippy's Report
