MEATHEAD T-HUNT

October 24, 2009/15

Jippy’s Story

 

A fine day. I was prepared on Friday after two months of no major hunting and the 4Runner was a mess. Up at 5:30 AM, and off and running by 6:30. I was going to find GeoTran 10 before breakfast at King’s.

 

GeoTran 10 had been hidden on Mulholland Drive but had been muggled. I was going out of town and asked Deryl to go see what happened. (actually I had asked Dave, as he was the only one to have found it so far, but he couldn’t go and told Deryl where it was). Deryl had re-hid it and I didn’t know where it was. Knowing Deryl, I knew it was somewhere on the west side of LA. So it made sense to find it on the way to PV.

 

But, as I fired up the 4Runner to leave home, I hear a transmitter coming from the north (Cajon pass) iding “N6MI”. Time for a big decision: do I go to the start/GeoTran 10 or go north to the transmitter?

 

I’m an old fat fart and tire out on these all-days before finding very many transmitters. I have a strong feeling that I am going to be the designated winner no matter what as I haven’t hid in over a year and hunters don’t like to hide as much as they like to hunt so I have to be made to hide sometime. It is only fair. Plus it would be nice to finish an all-day hunt and maybe an early start would help. I went for Cajon pass. Technically I can’t win, not having started in PV, but that is a 160 mile round trip from here, another reason to go for the transmitter.

 

Breakfast in Barstow (I’m sure this is a movie title) at 8AM. BunBoy is not the same at all. Off toward Baker. I planned to be in Baker by the start time at 10AM. Whoa, the transmitter is now to the NW. It had been to the NE on the way to Barstow. I turned around and went up Ft Irwin Road decided it was west of there and wormed my way over to Owl Canyon and on to Rainbow Canyon and found the second transmitter. It was now 9:45AM. 

 

The main transmitter was further in. It turns out it is 1.8 miles away from the second transmitter, but there is no road between the two. Here is where my experience in T-Hunting took a new turn.

 

I had bought a neat touch-screen GPS (Garmin nuvi 360) for the Saturn and had brought it along on the hunt. It showed Rainbow Canyon just find and where I was. I then poked on its screen causing it to move along the direction of the bearing I measured until it came to some road. I poked the screen to make it make that a waypoint, and told it to route to it. In about 10 seconds it was blaring out instructions on how I better get my butt going south (away from everything and gave me nice verbal directions for some 18 miles and four dirt roads and a short stretch of paved road between the two transmitters). It was dead on. I took a couple bearing but obeyed that talking box right up to the little very sandy dirt road it wanted me to go down.

 

Down is not the way one usually goes to find a hidden transmitter. Down a very loose sandy narrow and bumpy road is not a good thing to do. But by this time I was under the power of the little box and down I went to the end of the road. There was the transmitter. Little nuvi is my new “naviguesser”.

 

It was now about 10:45 and I was all done. My nice new tires went right up that sandy road in 2WD like it was paved and I had lunch in Barstow and went home.

 

I really enjoyed the view, the fact I got out of the desert before noon and found all the transmitter for once. Good hunt..

 

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7 years later to the day I again was hunting Scott. I left the house at 5AM, this time in the Prius having gotten a bearing at home of 180 degrees from a very loud signal (handheld rubber duck in side my house). I couldn’t imagine that this signal came from San Diego and the bearing goes very near Santiago which cannot be as it is usually gated this time of year. So I decided to go south down the 215 so I would be spaced out a bit from the saddleback ridge and be able to get a good cross from the 180 bearing.

 

It worked and I got a nice cross over Lake Elsinore. But I was too far east now to divert from the new transmitter (VCR T-1)  to the south so I continued south and found the VCR T1 near Gopher road and the 215. It was 7:05 AM. Now I could hear the “TT” transmitter to the east and went that while a couple hours and found TT at 9:10AM parked next to this silly truck with a 40 ft antenna participating in the CQ DX contest. I watched that for a couple hours and went after the main T west of Lake Elsinore and south of my house. I found that about 1PM or so. Ran in to WA6RJN.

 

Went on north to find MI T3 at about 3PM. Here I used my Garmin 2593 GPS (upgraded to where it not only talks to me about where the Transmitters are but I can talk back to it about how wrong it must be…a great navi-guesser).

 

 Home at 4PM for dinner with Marlene.

 

A fine hunt and lots of fun watching a contest and seeing the south side of Mt Palomar and the east side of the Saddle back ridge.

Bob WB6JPI