I shouda known things were not going to go quite as smoothly as planed. First, a week before the hide, there was a chance of rain for Saturday. It hadn’t really rained all month but now it might and only on Saturday. Second, on Monday I came down with the flu. I’m out sick Tuesday… and Wednesday…. And Thursday. I had scheduled a vacation day for Friday so I could go hide Ts. Friday became a sick day also. I had little time to prepare and the rain forecast went from maybe to definite. Time to change my hide area from the one I had planned.

I had checked each T and made sure its battery was charged and that it was ready to go. The Ts had worked perfectly on the last hide (the Temecula FFA I think). I wanted to give the hunt a little European flavor by marking each T site with a flag.

Saturday morning came and I was finally starting to feel better. Since David, KG6KZF, was out of the country, I asked my oldest son, Darryl, to come along. We had planned to leave about 6 AM. We made it by 7. I headed up the 5 toward the grapevine and hoped to come up with a plan. I decided to hide a "get you to the area" T on Liebre mountain and hide the remaining Ts down in the valley to the north.

After climbing up the mountain, I selected a place for T1. The 11 element beam was pointed toward the starting point and connected to T1. Just to be sure I decided to test the setup. That’s when I discovered that I had forgotten to bring any of my handhelds! I had to listen to the T using the radios in the 4 Runner. I inserted a power/SWR meter and checked the antenna SWR. No power output! I could hear the ID from the car, but no output to the antenna. This 4 watt T is usually reliable so I tried a different piece of coax. No output. I tried a different meter. No Output. OK, so the T is dead. I have another T so I retrieved it and hooked up T4. No output! I did not like the pattern that was emerging. I tried a third T. Output! We cleaned up the area and left the flag – T0.

Down the hill to hide the other Ts. The timer on T0 was set for 9:55. It was now 9:56 and no signal! Not again! 9:57 – the T came to life. Well, almost. I have never had a temperature problem with T0 before but now I did. The transmitter was working but the Ider was intermittent. Some of the letters did not work. It was sending DE WETR N. Some of the dashes were missing. When the sun came out and warmed it up it sent DE WA6REN. Then DE WA6RAN (added a dash). The DE WA6RWN and finally it found all its dashed, DE WA6RJN. Later the clouds returned and it lost it mind again.

David and I had hidden in this area during the "5 county" hunt in Oct 2002. Ironically, and without intending too, I ended up in the same place I hid before so I hid there again. The problem with T4 was a broken coaxial adapter (right angle F). I used a couple of adapters to fix the problem and T4 was on the air. I used a 3 element beam pointed at T0 up on the mountain. Left another flag – T4.

Wandered a little farther and found a little dirt road off another dirt road and set up T2. Let’s say it together -- no output. I’m sure how I fixed it. I just kept playing with things until it worked. Quick, while it’s still ticking, I hid it. But wait -- now the time period was to short. I collected it again and brought back to the car (remember, that’s the only place I a have a radio to hear it). I readjusted the time period and hid it with its flag – T2.

We were looking for a place with a little elevation but couldn’t reach it because of a gate. We took a road that paralleled the fence from the gate. Found a large bush (most of the brush is short) and hid T3 next to the fence with the dipole elements parallel to the fence wire. I was hoping this might couple the signal into fence and make it harder to find. Hid the T and turned it on – it WORKED! Finally something went right. Added a T3 flag.

Wandered about (these roads are starting to look alike) and found a place for T6. I wanted to place the dipole vertically but with a little height. I found a Joshua tree (?) and tied it to one of the branches. This T worked too! Left the T6 flag.

So far, 5 Ts. Want was wrong with T1? Could it be repaired? After some diagnosing, I discovered that the antenna connector’s center pin had snapped off the PC board. Resoldered the center pin and finally – output! Now I had one more T to hide. I wanted a place that looked back on the other Ts that I had just hid. I went to the south side of 138 and found a place next to the LA Aqueduct. Added a T1 flag and we’re done.

Darryl and I went to Sizzlers in Gorman for lunch. On our return I noticed T0 had lost its mind again. Time to collect it if all 4 hunters had found it. We headed up the mountain to fix it or shoot it. We met XFC and AIN coming down the mountain. They had been up there a couple of hours before concluding the remaining T weren’t up there. Upon inspecting the sign-in sheet at T0, we discovered all 4 hunters had fount it. I tried to fix it but couldn’t so I put it out of its misery and packed it up.

I decided to listen to see what could be heard from T0. Let’s see, T3 (50 mW), T6 (50 mW), T2 (400 mW) and T1. Hmmm….. Can’t hear the T that’s pointed right at us – T4. It was working when we went to lunch. Guess we’ll have to check it out when it’s picked up tomorrow. We returned home.

The next day I returned to collect what was left of the other Ts. T4 was dead as expected. The post mortem reviled an antenna switching diode had failed. I was surprised to find that T1 had failed also. In this case it was simply a run down battery. I collected the Ts and returned home.

For the recap. Attempted to hide 6 transmitters. 3 failed right off (T1, T4, T2), one failed (T0) when the timer turned it on. I fixed 4 Ts and one died a second death (T4). T3 and T6 worked OK. That left 5 Ts to find. (There was no T5).