All Day
October 22, 2016
N6AIN & N6EKS Perspective
It was a nice morning at the Summit Inn start point with a good turn
out of five teams. Once we got a direction from the hider’s
signal, north to Barstow was the determination. So off we went on
the 15.
The signal appeared to be coming from the east, northeast. A
mountain range was in the general area. Onward we went to the
40, this would prove to be the mistake of the day. We took the
40 east past the Bagdad Cafe and decided to exit putting us on the
Mother Road Route 66.
As we were driving east on Route 66, it struck me that this looked
to be the area where the makers of the movie CARS got their
inspiration. The hills, 66 in fair/rough condition running
along side I40. But I digress.
It became apparent that we needed to head south over a range of
hills. The most expedient way was to follow some very large
power lines on a power line road that was accessible from 66.
The power line road was very well maintained and used. However, we
never saw anyone. It was a good 30 mph dirt road. We
made our way along it meandering among the power lines and hills and
lava out crops that were long cold. We eventually crested the
hilltop to see that we had a very long way to go, on dirt.
As we continued on, the good dirt road started to be not so
good. In time we got onto Bessemer Mine Road. The road
continued to worsen and as the day went on we would be on some of
the worse dirt roads we have encountered while t hunting.
We traversed the area for hours chasing reflections and our own
tails. Eventually we found ourselves in the Johnson Valley
OHV. In time we made our way out of Johnson Valley and onto
247. This is when were experience problems with our
attenuator. We soon found that a wire had broken and it was not
repairable with what we had. So we used what was built into
the Kenwood 751A All Mode transceiver. After a short discussion with
Steve LAJ, we determined we were heading the right way on 247 and we
should be able to find the BBQ T with our current state of
equipment.
We found our way to the BBQ T. Finding the correct way in and
out was somewhat of a challenge and on our way in the first time we
went thru the neighbor’s side yard/back yard. It was around 4
o’clock and Deryl commented he was ready to eat. He had said a
couple of hours earlier that he was hungry. This was somewhat
unusual, since I am usually the one concerned about eating.
Perhaps the apple I ate around 1 pm had something to do with that.
Since this is a t-hunt Deryl decided to ignore his hunger and go in
search of at least one other T that we thought was nearby. We
went after the T that had failed and now was a dead carrier and no
longer official. After finding that one, the Wayback Machine
transmitter was nearby and we found it at the The Integratron. Which
then led us to another T up around some rocks.
About an hour or so later we were back to the BBQ T. We ate
and then headed off to find the last T for us, CE3K tones. It
was on the way out on 247. In our quest to find the BBQ T
(food), we were oblivious to going by this T. Which by the way
we were warned that there were some ruts and challenges on the road
to find this transmitter. Yes there were, but nothing compared
to what we had been going through all day.
Thank you Ron, for the interesting hunt, food and hospitality.