Our story on setting up the August 22 2015th. T-Hunt.

After so many years of hiding T's in the Big Bear area, we felt that there is still many possibilities of hiding up there. One, the weather, in August the temp down in the flatlands the temp can be 15-20 degrees warmer than at Big Bear.

I starting looking at possible hiding spots back in March. I noticed that there are a lot of dead end roads that are quite interesting in both locations and in cool areas. So I started checking out these locations. One in which the “come to here” location was at the end of a 2 mile drive and was at a straight line of sight to the Pathfinder start point. We could use a low power T, that might turn out to be hard to get to once in the area. Well this one was Kuputt come Friday night when I went to place the main T. It seems that the road is closed due to “Winter rehabilitation”, hey it's in the middle of summer! How can we be in winter rehabilitation now? So I had to quickly find a spot not too far from that location, that would allow access to the start point and be hard to find. Well the  where the T3 location was hid, which was going to be my T12 spot became the primary spot for the main T. It was near a campsite that was being used. I talked to the users of the site, and explained that we shouldn't be too disruptive to their peace and quiet. I climbed up to a spot, that was going to be for the low powered T12, and placed T3 a 5 watt T with a 4 element beam, pointed at the start point through a depression in a ridge a couple miles away, hoping that the signal will be heard at the start point. That was set to come on at 10.00 am the next morning,

Next day Saturday the 22th. Got up early (stayed at a friend's Cabin) and went to place several of other T's. By 10:00am had several other T's placed. As I was turning on T7, I heard N6MI say he could hear it at his home.  So that T was enough to get the hunters to the area, Now T12 had to be placed on a road that wasn't a dead end. I placed it on the road just below the T3 location. Steve was placing T's at the northern end of our range, T2 and T11. After all the T's were placed we waited for the hunters to arrive. One of the T's (T9) was placed at the Fawnskin Moose Lodge, where the “Black Tie Affair” was to take place. All the placed T's except for the Snake T, were within a 2.5 miles radius of each other (see map of T locations). So the hunt didn't cover that much area! Not having a beam antenna on my car, I was not able to see the reflection problems that the hunters got from bounces and other signal hiding effects, but talking with some of the hunters, I guess that most of the T's where hard to locate. In the end we had 9 T's out and only one T had a failed battery when we went to pick them up, and that T, T12 battery had just got to the no work point of 7.5 volts, so I believe it lasted for some 20+ hours.

Now that I have read both Jippy's and Ray's stories, I could add several other comments on the why and where we hid the T's, but it's enough to say we couldn't of planned it better even if we tried.

I will say that “sorry” for the bad roads, but most of the roads in that area are bad, especially the ones that dead end! I will say this though, we had found several spots that where great hiding spots, but I (Steve) felt that backing down a 1/4 trail from the hidden T spot, with a 200' drop off was more than a one day all day hunt should require.

For Jippy, Sorry the Pizzas ran out, I was wondering about that when Steve and I sat down about 6:00pm and seen they where getting low on pizza coverings.

 Also I talked to Deryl and he had already cleaned his car before noon on Sunday, I'm wondering if I should clean mine this year or wait till next year.

Hope everybody who came out had fun, as usual, it's a lot of work planing and putting on a hunt, but I really like exploring the back roads up there, so it's also a fun time.

I do want to hear Doug's story, because as I was talking with him as he was leaving, he had his sights on the talking T, and was heading right for it, and somehow he never found it!

KF6GQ and for KD6LAJ we hope you had a fun day.

The mystery of T7

It was interesting when I went to pick up T7 Sunday morning. As you read this check the pictures of T7 at different times. T7 is using a ELK log periodic antenna. The log antenna is fed on the end pointing towards the place you want the signal to go! Now on Deryl's picture you can see the feed point, and the height of the antenna, the next picture is Scott's picture, notice that it has turned around. Now look at the picture at the time I picked it up. Not only is the antenna pointed the wrong way, but it now has lost 2' of height! Interesting in how it changed from the time I placed it to the time I picked it up. I'm not making any accusations, but it is interesting.

Don KF6GQ