August 27 2011 All Day WA6FAT Memorial Thunt.

From; Don & Steve

Story as follows.

Paul WA6HPW had called me earlier in the week to see if I had any amplifiers that he and Martin might use on their hide. All I had was a Mirage 25 watt handheld amp, and a power brick that was suppose to put out 40 watts. Friday morning reading my e-mail, I see that Paul was having some trouble getting any thing to work. The deadline was fast approaching for his hunt. He brought them over Friday evening, and he was right, neither one was working! So the only thing I had to offer him was my simplex repeater, that with amp, would put out about 25 watts. What he also needed was a timer on a radio that would come on automatically. The only re-recordable one that I had was a 50mw voice recordable T. So as I saw it, all he had to do was place the low power T close to the simplex repeater, and away you go! Well from Paul's point of view that's not what happened. As all of us on the hunt knew, there was much happening to the T, that wasn't planned for. Paul can fill you on the rest, but I want to get to our views on the hunt.

We all gathered at the start, and heard nothing at 10:00am. About 20-30 minutes into the hour, contact was made by N6AIN to Martin. Obviously, Paul & Martin were having some trouble getting a hunt able signal back to the start. After several minutes, we had a good signal that we could get started. As best of what we could tell, the signal was very close to Mt. Baldy, or a bounce from it! We knew that nobody would hide out in the desert on the hottest weekend this year. So we felt that he must be either up near Wrightwood or maybe somewhere in the Hemet/ Idywild area, bouncing a signal off of Baldy. As we got out to the I15 area, the signal wasn't doing the usual bouncy stuff that would be expected from a Baldy bounce. So maybe he is up in the local mountains? Or maybe not! So we continued up Cajon Pass, as we approached Oak Knoll exit, we got a very strong signal to the North. Must remember to check polarization when getting a strong direct signal! We got a bearing that placed it about halfway between the I15, and 395. I can't believe that he hid out in the desert!

All this time Steve is admiring the buildup of potential thunder storms thinking a storm in the desert is something to see. Well we headed up 395 vertically polarized, with the signal at about 20-25 degrees true off our right side. As we topped the hills just south of Kramer Junction, the signal was about 45 degrees true. So as we got to hwy 58 we went east. About 4 miles and it was 0 degrees true! What? how can this be? The signal is less than two lights on my meter, and sometimes goes away completely! So turn around, get gas, head up 395 about 8 miles, bearing now is 105+ degrees. Something is wrong here! We have what seems like a cross only about 4-5 miles away, and the signal is crap! Steve tells me there is a road on the AAA map that will take us to a spot not far from the cross location. I not as convinced as Steve is, but we go anyway, in about two miles the west to east road has come to a stop, with only north south roads! Back to 395, to 58 east on 58. We are going to go all the way to Harper Dry Lake road, then head north! As we are traveling east on 58, we see the darking clouds ahead. Then it really started to rain! Just as the rain & wind started we got to the road and headed north. We stopped to check out our radio system, because I couldn't believe that the signal should be so poor! As we sat there for about 1 minute, we realized that lighting strikes were hitting all around us! I don't think the antenna (lighting rod) sticking out the top of the car is the best thing to have in the middle of a thunder storm. We got out of there as fast as we could, and at 45 mph, the dust from the storm was passing us! I looked back and all I could see was a very, very black cloud! I told Steve that a tornado could very well be in the middle of that mess! Ahead was sunshine and dust. We went about 8 miles, and the road ended (not on map), by a new large solar plant. By now we had out run the storm by a few miles, and the suspected danger was passed. We got on a dirt road that was heading in the general direction of the T. We were able to talk to N6AIN and he was over by Black Canyon, the location of a hunt we put on 1.5 years ago. Now our road has turned to a two track path! Up on a hill in front of us is a strange looking object. It turns out to be a "EarthScope" this is a device that measures ground creepage via GPS, and the data is sent by microwave link.

 Off hopefully to the T, we get on a BLM "approved route", which seems a bit optimistic for my Jeep! It soon deteriorated into a single track trail! On my Garmin GPS I could see all kinds of "roads" around us, but nothing I could see would I call a road! Finally as we illegally went cross country we came to a wash, which corresponded to the road indicated on my GPS. So we followed this forever, gradually going up to a set of hills in the distance (Gravel Hills). This track was soft sand, and going about 25 mph to stay on top of the sand, I see that my engine temp was starting to climb! Off with the air! Thanks Paul & company for the hide in the heat of summer! We then wound ourselves through a narrow canyon to come out on the mesa top where we found a site marked with an American Flag, and several motorcycle items. This is a place where many motorcyclists have been remembered by family and friends (look up Husky Site on Google earth). Also a web site at      http://thebannerisup.district37ama.org/places/husky-memorial.shtml

Now we are starting to get some useful signal strength, and we might get there before dark! We have been in contact with N6AIN and he seems to be south of us and a bit east. We drive all the way to the Grass Valley Wilderness area. The road is right next to the fence line, and as the road goes away from the fence, slightly to the south, we get the signal hard left! But still not a “you are here” signal. We stop, then I notice another BLM “approved route” sign, with some tire tracks going up a canyon, this is it!!!! I claim. So up we go till we are in the canyon, but no signal! What is this? We can’t go any further north, because that will put us within Ft. Irwin boundary. So where can he be? I take the sniffer up to the top of the west wall of the canyon, and take a bearing. It looks like the signal is coming from the next canyon to the west! Hey, there is a road going up that canyon, how did we miss that? On the way here, we had not seen a road up that canyon. While up on the hill I see Deryl (N6AIN) at the mouth of our road. We met up with Deryl, and went back west to the other road. At the end of the road on the eastern side of the canyon, was a 11 element beam, pointed so that it just cleared the canyon wall, so only a small amount of the signal would spill over into the valley below. Also we now noticed that the beam wasn’t vertical it was horizontal! Maybe that’s why we got so many odd bearings during our hunt. Now it was easy to find the rest of the T’s. So we got out of there at about 6:45pm, and had dinner at Denny’s in Barstow.

 We did have an adventure, it was fun, and the location of the main T was great. Thanks to Paul, Martin, and Peter for taking the time and effort to put on a great hide.

Oh! and what happened to WB6JPI ?

Don & Steve KF6GQ & KD6LAJ