Hider: Doug WA6RJN
Hider story

I had originally targeted a different area for the hide but due to the heat wave I decided to try an area that was cooler than 100+. The idea I had was to do a “string along” hunt where upon finding one T you would hear the next T until you reached the last T at the beach.

To get started I hid T1 (3W) off of hwy 154 at its peak on Camino Cielo where there was a grand view of Santa Barbara and a path to the Palos Verdes starting point. Nearby was T4 (50 mW) that had a great view to the northwest where the next Ts were and should have been heard.

On the way down 154 from the peak was T9 in a bush at the View Point.

The next two Ts did not perform as expected. T10 (50 mW) was on a small ridge on Ballard Canyon Rd south of the 154 on the west side of Los Olivos. T2 was on Dominion Rd near Palmer Rd. It was running 4W into an 11 element horizontal beam. Unfortunately the signal did not propagate into the canyons as expected and was difficult to hear.

T2 should have led to T5 (50 mW) which was at Rice Ranch Rd and Bradley Rd in Orcutt. From there T7 could be heard. T7 (3W) was located on W. Main at the ranger booth near the beach. At T7 was the talking Bug T saying “I thought you’d like the beach better than the Mojave Desert”.

What I didn’t expect was the stop-and-stop traffic the hunters told me about along the way. Many said it took 4 hours to get from the starting point to hwy 154 in Santa Barbara. I guess the days of hunting up the coast are over.

The other problem was that after contacting the hunters I confused the messages and thought that all hunters had quit by 8 PM. Turns out the N6MI/KE6VCR team was still hunting and only after I had retrieved T7 and the bug T did I encounter them at T5. The happy ending is that they continued hunting to find T2
and T10 making them the winners.

I’ll be hiding next month’s T hunt and hope it isn’t a sequel.
WA6RJN

 Results
N6MI/K6VCR            T4           T1      T9       T5      T2      T10
TIME           AFTER 3:30   AFTER 3:30    4:45     8:00    8:35    10:30 WINNER
MILES                124          128     136      241     245     251

KF6GQ/KD6LAJ          T4           T1      T9
TIME                 2:56         3:O7    4:07
MILES                130          132     139

N6AIN/N6EKS           T1           T4      T9
TIME                 3:30         3:45    4:45
MILES                121          123     136

WB6JPI                T1           T4
TIME                 3:02         3:32
MILES                131          134

AB6PA/KG6EEK          T4           T1
TIME                 6:30         7:09
MILES                151          153