Jippy’s Story

November 22, 2008

A beautiful day. Good folk, Good hunt Good food, Bad 4Runner

I took the 4Runner into the shop on Tuesday as it was running poorly and I had changed the plugs, wires and Oxygen Sensor and it still was poopie. They said it was broke and had eaten an exhaust valve on number six. A common problem for this engine when overheated. I never noticed the temp gauge over mid range so it couldn’t have been my fault. I decided to go on the hunt anyway as I didn’t have the money for fixing the valve and didn’t have the time before the hunt and my hiding the WWNIATT next Saturday. Too many taxes, insurances, Christmases and such.

I had bought a new antenna for the 4Runner and had installed it but didn’t check it out until I planted the GeoTran this morning. I had no RF from the antenna. Not a good thing for performing on a Thunt. I removed the mast while at the start point and found that the UHF to BNC adaptor had no middle parts. The center conductor from the antenna to the cable was not there. Fixed that but still the performance was not too good. Good enough to barely hear T5 at the start. 345 degrees…Gorman here we come.

Down the hill Hawthorne Blvd to the 405 Fwy to the 5 Fwy to Templin Hwy which I shot past. I was hearing T5 and then I heard a weak T with low modulation (I later determined it was T8) that seemed to be coming from the old road which can easily be accessed from Templin Hwy. I was cussing my self for missing it and decided to stop and the sand yard and try to take the dirt road up to the old hwy. A very lucky break as there was T3 on the other side of the 5 Fwy. I was first to sign in. I think all the others shot past the sand yard and went about 10 miles round trip to get back. While in the vicinity, I got a call from Scott. They had found my sniffer at T3. While I was sniffing there, Deryl drove up and we were talking and I forgot my sniffer. I swung back and picked it up as I went on to Gorman for a bite to eat at Carl’s Jr. While getting Gas at Flying J I ran into Don and Steve, the hiders (they had traded with Scott). Scott was inside eating lunch and came out soon for more lies and such.

T5 was very strong here and other Ts could be heard. I tried to get up on the ridge north of Mt Frazer from the east but it was not possible. So I went around to the west. About 2 miles in this dirt road I run into Bob and Cathy talking with Doug. We chat a while. I went on about another 2 miles and run into Scott and soon Bob and Cathy show up and we chat a lot more.  Signed into T5.

I went back down the road to where Bob and Cathy were talking with Doug and took that little off road about a mile, caught up with Bob and Cathy and found that T8 was very strong  but seemed to be coming from up the hill. Continued on the road for about 3 more miles and got out on top. About 1000 feet higher than where T8 was very strong. I had not been going after any Ts for a while just enjoying a extreme road and the pleasure of low gear. The view up there was great and you can see the T5 site under the towers in the third picture. I don’t know why they didn’t hide T8 up there.

I went back down to where T8 was strong and found it. I also found a strange “orange”. I then went home as it was getting dark and I was tired from being up since 5AM and all. Great hunt.

Jippy