Bob's Story
WB6JPI
I forgot my new neat sniffer. I slaved over the hollidays
on this neat sniffer to end all sniffers and I forgot it on it's first outing. Ruined
the whole day.
I decided to go east. I don't know why as the intial bearing was between 110 and 120
degrees, but east seemed like a good compromise with the LA freeway system. I was
thinking Yuma. I get to Green River and no one is home. Nothing..nadda, zip. I was
seriouly thinking of going home and getting the sniffer and starting over.
South on the 15. I start getting signals but it is not T-1 but T-3. 154 degrees. Gee
that crosses the T-1 bearing at Temecula...on a few more miles and I hear T-4, same
bearing...no sign of T-1.
I get off at Railroad Cyn., eat lunch and get some gas, convinced that they are up
over Lake Elsinore, but want to make sure they are not just west of the lake so I
go around the lake from the south and up Ortega Hwy to that ridge route (Killen Trail)
and found T-3. As I was listening as to where to go next up comes Don and Steve who
had gone past T-3 and went on south on this ridge road but had not found T-4. They
didn't know it was there as they had come down the coast and over Ortega from the
west and didn't have the knowledge that I had from the east. Great hide, as they
would soon know when they found the two (or three) transmitters to the east (which
I didn't hear when I was down there. I wonder if they were on???)
I went on south on the ridge road and found T-4. I now heard T-1 and went after it.
The road from the Killen Trail to Tenaja road is open. Found T-1 over by Margareta
Peak and on the way out ran into Don and Steve again. Swapped some lies. Went back
to Temecula. I heard T-2 on Tenaja to the NE (53 degrees) but never heard it again.
I was heading toward the talking transmitter that I heard when I found T-3 and it
had lured me to the east, off the ridge, as talking Ts are very low power and must be
nearby. It had come up rapidly (I later figured it musta been just turned on) and I
was sure it was only a few hundred feet further. Phooie. 2 miles down a very nasty
dirt road and I realized it must be 20 miles away. Back up the nasty road to
T-4. Now it was time to get the talking T.
Across the 15 Fwy. going east, up pops another T. This one is closer. I go around the
hill 270 degrees and nail it. On to talking T. I surround the critter and on the
fourth time around, I find the way up. It is now about 8 PM and very dark. This road
is not to be believed...about 4 ft wide with a 500 ft drop into the darkness. I got
up there and found the T.
I got lost coming down and got on some even worse little road. Go back up to the top
and find the right road? and am creaping down when here comes N6MJN up the hill. I
squeezed over against the inner wall eating all the sage bushes and luckily his mini
truck slithered past. But right behind him was KC6TNJ in his brand new 20 ft wide 6
ton super SUV. His first outing with it. His wife's in the truck. I squeezed another
foot and we passed, but not until WA6TQQ collapsed mirrors, which still kissed. I am
still pulling sage out from under the 4 Runner.
I gave up and headed for Temecula and some dinner and on home. I found 5, heard 6
and there was supposedly 7 transmitters. Great hunt..
Jippy