ALLDAY T-HUNT
JIPPY AND GLENN’S STORY
October 22, 2016
It was a beautiful day. Little did I know we were in for a fine piece of radio trickery. Glenn, AB6PA picked me up and we romped off to the Summit Inn sign (The inn had burned down in the last brushfire). We were met by a lot of hunters and we gabbed a bunch. At 10AM Ron WA6CYY turned on transmitters and I was able to hear 4 or maybe 5. Others heard two. They didn’t have Glenn’s fine radios and antenna. And so the monstrous deception began.
The signals were all very weak (SSB) and could not be IDed but the timing was right for a hidden transmitter bearings were between 20 and 40 degrees with the strongest in the 40 degree range. I did hear a weak thing at 165 but that was expected to be a reflection off of the mountains around Big Bear from a transmitter that far north in the high desert.. And it turned out it was just that. I also heard one at 14 degrees vertical but that could be anything or nothing which is what it was, nothing. The whole group apparently drove northeast up the 15 to Barstow, some 50 miles. It was still weak but now pointed east along the 40.
We stopped at the 247 that was going south off of the 15 and made bearings on 2 or 3 transmitters to the east and one at 162 degrees to the SE. Still must be that nasty bounce off of the Big Bear mountains.. We gave up on going down 247 an decided to continue east on 40. We went to Newberry Springs some 20 miles before we got signals South in the Rodman mountains. It was still week, but definitely South to Southeast. We tried several pats to get into the Rodman Mountains and even got high-centered on one very sandy un-road. Glenn had to jack the car up and pile enough rocks under the front wheel to get the motor from being an anchor.
We decided enough of trying to get into the mountains and as the signal was still very weak we tried to get around the east end of the mountains. We went back to National Trails Rte. 66 and went east to Power Line Road (another 20+ miles) and took Power Line Road South West for 35 miles to 247 averaging 20-25 MPH. Too much dirt.
Along this horrible dirt road going SW we had signals that were 40 dB of attenuator strong to the South but all the roads and area SE from the road were posted as having hazardous unexploded bombs laying about. We decided not to go there because there wasn’t any roads that looked like they would go more than a mile or so. By the time we got to 247 the signals were back at SSB levels and were east-south east.
It was late (5PM) and we were tired after some 45 miles of dirt and we hadn’t eaten anything since before the start we decided to give up on T3 the strongest signal and work on the signal Iding BBQ. We took several side trips to the north going East and SE on 247 into Johnson valley as the bearings were getting stronger but pointing North. Eventually, we gave up on going North and decided to go SE on 247. That went well and the signal got very strong. We found it in Landers with some 180+ miles. Not too bad for a trip that would have been about 90 miles had we gone down 247 from Barstow or 60 miles if we had gone after the “Big Bear Bounce” from the start. We were had big time
I predict this is a great T-hunting break-through for LA hunters. We have spent 50 years battling the “Baldy Bounce” and the “Mt. Wilson Bounce” now with the Summit start point we can look forward to every high point from Breckenridge to Death Valley to be a reflection for transmitters with big antennas and a north facing canyon in the San Bernardino and Angeles Forests.
Thanks to Ron and his very fine hunt a new day has dawned for T-hunting in Southern California.