Pathfinder Hunt
Hiders Story
My "Plan A" to hide in the LA Harbor was nixed due to
security concerns
in this Post-911 era so had to go with "Plan B." Last
week I hid the
South O.C. SOARA hunt on Avenida La Pata just 1/4 mile
south of Avenida
Pico in San Clemente. This gave me an opportunity to
check out many new
roads in the somewhat new Talega development. Lots of NO
PARKING signs
everyone and 1 choice spot allowed parking up til 6pm so
that was out.
Back in the 90s we hid with Sten KD6BXE on the power
line roads right on
the county line at the end of La Pata and I recalled
that we had an
awesome Santiago Bounce so what the heck let's do it
again! Not wanting
to hide alone til midnight we found a high spot above
the Talega Valley
floor where we could hear the start point direct a
little plus robust
reflections off Santiago, Pleasants Peak, and apparently
Sierra which
tricked KD6ICZ into driving towards Corona. Heard N6ZHZ
check in from
Lake Matthews and he was hearing me pretty well on that
side of the
mountains.
Power was initially about 20 watts into a 4 elem. quad
to get back to the
start and we changed that frequently from 5 to 50watts
for the first 30
minutes of the hunt.
ICZ and GQO both reported a slight Baldy Bounce next to
the turnabout at
the start point but that was an unintended effect of
point North. Running
a terrain profile on Topo! the range from Mt. Baldy to
the Cajon Pass is
somewhat line of sight and 55 miles away! Keep that in
mind for future
hunts. ;)
Results Team Miles Time N6AIN/WA6PYE/KG6LSE 70.3 9:36pm **WINNER** KE6GQO 72.6 10:50pm N6MJN, 98.6 10:30pm(took a little sidetrip) KD6ICZ 100.1 11:00pm
Thanks for coming out,
n6uzs
