don102718

We got to Pathfinder starting point a bit late to find parking in the park. It seems that WA6RJN & N6AIN had taken up the last two places to park (thanks guys). We parked just to the south on the street (in hot sun). When 10:00 am finally came around T2 LAJ came on the air. Steve had told me he had lent Scot a couple of T's, so it wasn't a surprise to our team that Steve's T was hiding this weekend. We had the beam set to 45 degree angle and got a strong clear bearing of 220 degrees, which placed it at the coast near Seal Beach. We started down the 57 fwy., and as we got close to Lambert we got the tickle of a second signal (no direction), and T2 was going off to our right a bit, so we turned right on Lambert and then south on State College. It looks like the T isn't anywhere close to the coastline, it's very local! We went past Bastanchury and realized we had passed it, made a U turn went west on Bastanchury and passed it again! We had to drive west for almost one mile to make another U turn to get back to the turnoff for the T, which was Vista Park. We found the T (Steve did, I was still driving around the parking lot) found it up against the perimeter fence for the golf course pointed towards the San Gabriel's. As we were packing back up, RJN stopped by and asked if we had heard any more T's, we told him we had, but didn't get any bearing. We left the parking area, and listened again for another T. It was there, T6 quite strong. We got a bearing of 225 broad, I think at this time we came to the decision that it was most likely a bounce from Catalina Island. Well the only place I could think of was Palos Verdes where you can get this effect, ( it's a good thing we hadn't thought of all the other places that it could of been!) So we left the hill and promptly lost the signal, only to have it reappear on and off till we got to Signal Hill where we took a bearing on T6 & and also heard T9, both where at a bearing of about 240 degrees. It pointed to the south end of San Pedro. When we left the top of Signal Hill, we lost T9, and T6 was in an out. We went west to PCH and Western, and traveled south. It was fortunate that we took the high road, because T9 was able to be heard from up there, it pointed back down toward the harbor. After several missed directions to T9, we started to get a stronger signal with definite direction-ally, it pointed to 22nd street park (didn't know it at that time). We tracked it down using sniffer and sharp eyes (Steve's). It was in a small tree alongside a walking path, If you do a Google map satellite view, go to the exact center of park, and see where the long loop trail connects with the short loop trail, just east about 135 feet, is a small tree, and it was hanging there in plain sight! If you use Google Maps, it is just left of the "S" in street park. So then we set our sights on T6, we had preliminary bearings that said it would be found along side the cliffs on the south side of PV. So we traveled along Palos Verdes South highway until we finally had the signal fall behind us (oh! there where several side trips to be sure he wasn't hiding on one of the many overlooks). When it fell behind, we drove through some estates until we found him parked on side of the road, at Christmas Tree Cove, with a 40 watt transmitter going into a 10 DB + beam, pointed at Catalina, Also there was a 6 mw. transmitter close by in some bushes. So in all we found 4 transmitters, and finished at 15:30!

Don KF6GQ