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South Orange C |
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Transmitter Hunt Archive
But only as a spoiler, the real fox was miles away in Capistrano Beach on the bluffs there the temp was a cool 70f.
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SOARA December T Hunt
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SOARA November T-hunt by Dale, W8RRV SOARA T-hunt boundaries are the county line to the East, West and South, and the 55 and 91 freeways to the North. No one had hidden the T in the northern portion of the allowed region — yet. So we (Karl, KF6MDF, and Dale, W8RRV) decided to wander into that unknown region in search of a suitable park. Actually we wandered about as far East as was inhabited. Canyon Rim Park in Anaheim Hills (at the intersection of E. Serrano Ave and E. Canyon Rd.) is a pleasant park (and School) with picnic tables and a fairly clear view to the south. Well, it is clear for some distance, but there are certainly hills directly to the South and West. In checking out the propagation to the Mission Viejo area we found that the transmitting antenna had to be directed to the Southwest, and the receiving antenna got the strongest signal when pointed West rather than North. Hmmm, this might mislead the hunters on Sunday, but "What can you do?" At 1:00 PM Sunday the Transmitter went on the air and several SOARA hunters started. The first person to arrive at the park was N6MJN, Dave, who is not a SOARA member, but a dedicated hunter who heard the transmitter and start tracking it. He arrived at 2:30 PM. About an hour later the first SOARA hunters showed up. Dave, KG6QCI, and Richard, K6RBS, logged in at 3:32 PM. Most of the other hunters were misled by the reflections off of the surrounding hills. Joe, W6BGR, and Brian, NJ6N, both arrived about 5:22 PM shortly before Howard, KG6GI, and Lou, KG6FCT. Kareem, KG6USK, had to drop out early. Everyone seemed to enjoy the hunt and the challenge of the reflections among the hills. Some welcome refreshment awaited the hunters when they finally found the park. Dave and Richard (KG6QCI and K6RBS) will hid the transmitter on December the 4th. Dave has promised that everyone will be able to find the hidden transmitter in time to make it to the SOARA party. Dave, some of us have to get to the party early to help with the decorations so don't make it too difficult |
The Sunday afternoon SOARA transmitter hunt gets a new twist
Sunday October 9, 2005
Matt Mendenhall, KE6ALM
Our group of transmitter hunters has been improving their skills quite a bit recently. I wanted to provide a hunt with a new “twist” so I thought it might be interesting to use a rotating beam antenna. I bought the largest radio control model servo I could find to rotate the antenna. I wrote software for a PIC microcontroller to control the servo, plus ID the transmitter and control a relay to turn on and off an external power amplifier. Unfortunately, I didn’t finish the software until 4 AM Sunday morning and didn’t have enough time to design and build the mechanical interface for the antenna. No problem, I went out to the garage and pulled an antenna rotator off the shelf, and was able to adapt the servo to control the rotator in less than an hour. This was at 11:30 Sunday morning, just 1/2 hour before I needed to leave my house. . .
The location I chose to hide was the rear parking lot of Pizza Port restaurant in San Clemente. Lately we have been having lunch at the end of the hunts and I thought pizza and beer would be an entirely acceptable reward after a mildly challenging hunt. The parking lot is off a small street (Camino de Estrella) and isn’t a very obvious location. Because there was a lot of equipment and I needed a large battery to run everything, I left the transmitter in my car. I got very lucky and was able to park next to a small outbuilding that hid the view of my car from the street, so the hunters didn’t know they found it until they rounded the corner of the building.
To make the hunt a little easier and save everyone a few dollars in gas, I posted a message to the SOARA forum to let everyone know the transmitter would be in the south part of the county. Also, the software I wrote wouldn’t move the antenna for the first 20 minutes (but after that it changed direction every 45 seconds). This seemed to work fairly well as many of the hunters started just a few miles away, but were fooled by the changing direction and what they thought were numerous reflections. Howard KG6GI was in the neighborhood and heard the few clues I gave out at 3:30, but the 50 Watt power level was overloading his equipment and he was unable to get a precise enough bearing. Kareem KG6USK wasn’t expecting such a large power level so he was still a few miles away at 4:15 when I turned off the transmitter. Kareem had 5:00 dinner reservations so he was unable to join us afterwards.
Because I was a little behind in finishing the equipment, the transmitter was five minutes late going on the air. The winner was Karl KF6MDF at 1:50, with a time of 45 minutes. Next in was Richard K6RBS at 2:15. Dale W8RRV arrived at 2:35. Cruiser KG6QCI was having equipment problems so he decided to drop out. We also had a visit from K6MJN who heard the transmitter quite well in Costa Mesa and thought it would be fun to come find it. The last to find the transmitter was Joe W6BGR at 4:05.
- DE KE6ALM
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September 18, 2005
The guy on the right? Or the guy on the left?
On a nice sleepy day in Sept. SOARA had another of its T-hunts, and as usual Dave and Richard were looking for a nice tricky hunt. THIS time, however, Dave found out that the Catalina repeater guys were having their picnic in Irvine. AND the king of kings in the t-hunting biz ( Joe Moell K0ov) was setting up shop right at the picnic! Out of the bag of tricks Joe showed me
were things that would make your antenna melt. My guys are
good but those have to stay in the bag, so we opted for a 2nd
low power transmitter in the center of the picnic with the 6
watt trans' out at a park just a few blocks away. I would
eagle eye the main one and Joe would keep an eye on the 2nd
one. Richard had the day off. I really wanted the guys to get this one
fast so they could get to the Catalina picnic & hunt a few
of the trans Joe hid around the park.. 1 PM, on went the
main fox, and the hunt was rolling! Who do I hear with a strong signal on the
reverse in 25 minutes? Ol' Matt KE6ALM with KG6USK Kareem &
his assistant Heba. Working as a team, they skated in 32 min
and 52 seconds. Then blasted off to go find the 2nd
fox which they both found it at 2:00pm (Only cause they
found Joe first and chewed his ears off about t-hunting for
about 20 minutes) Next in on the first fox was KF6MDF Karl
in 54 min 50 sec. OH baby, the pirates had landed! It was very nice of the Catalina guys to
lets us in to their party, and allow us to savage their hot
dogs and hamburgers. And a thanks to Joe & April Moell for
staying a little later to let us find their hidden T's as
well. See you guys next month,
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Who
Would you believe?|
August 7, 2005 SOARA’s monthly hidden transmitter hunts are held on the first Sunday of the month (exceptions for holiday weekends). The annual picnic was scheduled for Sunday, August 7, and so the T-hunt was held at the picnic location. Baby Beach, Dana point occupies a relatively limited area and is a good place for an "on foot" hunt. Dale, W8RRV, and Karl, KF6MDF, were scheduled to do the hiding. This is the second year that they had the honors at the picnic. Many of the hunters from last year remember the "buried in the sand" hunt from last year. Since many club members attend the picnic, we planned a short instruction session followed by a couple of beginner level hunts, followed by some more challenging hunts for the more experienced members. Dave, KG6QCI, and Richard, K6RBS, volunteered to conduct the instruction session for beginners. While they showed some of the finer points of locating a transmitter, Dale and Karl went off to hid the first two of the "Ts". The requirement for the first hunt was that only teams were allowed, and the team must have an experienced hunter and a beginner. The "T" was not far away and it was a straight forward hunt. The second hunt was for beginners only, and although they could receive encouragement, they did the hunting themselves. This wasn’t intended to be a difficult hunt. However the "T" was next to a metal fence and that did give some false readings for those on the wrong side of the fence. T-hunting is a good way to learn about the peculiarities of propagation. It may seem very confusing at first, but after a few hunts one begins to develop a feel for the behavior in various settings. (Those hiding the "T" seldom hide it in a location devoid of features which will disturb the radiation pattern!) About a dozen or so hunters participated in the early hunts.
We had planned a hunt to follow this one, in which the "T" was in the purse of a young lady strolling through the park. Since the time was growing short we decided to eliminate this one. We didn’t turn that "T" on, but it got started while jostling around among all of the mysterious "Stuff" girls carry in their purses. That meant that for a time there were two simultaneous transmitters. Some of the hunters started out on her trail before we turned it off. The last hunt was located at the top of the cliff in a less obvious location. For this one we used a directional antenna to direct the energy at the harbor, in hopes of luring hunters in the wrong direction. Our previous measurements had demonstrated that it was difficult to get the desired effect effect. By the time this last hunt started there were only three hunters still active. I should mention that several of the regular hunters were out of town and could not attend the picnic, and others were busy with duties at the picnic. So it was the team of Dave and Richard against Matt. As it turned out it was a close finish with Richard and Matt racing toward the "T". Richard made there first, but had clearly been a challenge. We had given serious consideration to hiding this last "T" at the far end of the Marina where it would have been difficult to tell whether it was across the bridge (Dana West Marina) or at the tip of Dana Village on the mainland side, or across the water near the boatyard and fuel dock. We settled on the cliff location because it gave the least advantage to teams. A team of two has some advantages over individual hunters. For this last hunt Richard started at the picnic location and Dave was beyond the Ocean Institute near the breakwater. That allowed them to get some triangulation from their initial readings. When it was clear that the "T" was at the top of the cliff, Richard headed for the top, a fairly circuitous rout was necessary, while Dave scanned the cliff from the road below to tell him how far along the cliff to go. If we had gone with our other location close to the marina, the team would have taken separate paths, one going over the bridge, and one going toward the shops area at the far end of the mainland side of the marina. One of them would have been near to the "T". An individual hunter, after selecting one path of the other would have no chance if their choice was the wrong one. Dale and Karl won last month’s hunt largely due to working as a team. Both got very strong readings at the start of the hunt. Strong enough to suggest that the "T" was not far away. However the directions, when compared, indicated that it was in Laguna Beach. Once there they separated to search from the laguna beach side and from the inland side. In closing, a comment about equipment. It is fun, enlightening and occasionally helpful to have elaborate equipment for hunting. but the thing that is most valuable is experience. Even simple equipment — a yagi, and an attenuator — will allow you to find the transmitter. A cell phone with a team mate on the other end is the next item to acquire. What? A car full of radios and you are using a cell phone?! Report are that it was a fun hunt, and perhaps some of the beginners will be out on future hunts. 73, Dale, W8RRV |
The first of
the more challenging hunts found the "T" hidden in the
Overlook Gazebo, high on the cliff above the beach. It got
there by car, but the hunters were on foot. It was not
difficult to get a decent bearing, but was it at the top, or
half way up the cliff. Some brave hunters braved the steep
face of the cliff before following the winding road to the
top. Richard, K6RBS, hurried up the road and got to the "T"
quickly. Frankly, this location was not only interesting in
itself, but was selected in part to throw Richard and Dave
off on the final hunt. Since one of the hunts had ended at
the top of the cliff, the final one (the big one) probably
wouldn’t be there also. Matt, KE6ALM, and Kareem, KG6USK,
made it to the Gazebo. Jeremy, KG6JAD, was well on his way,
when he was called back (walked off with the key’s to
Robin’s , KG6MCA, car!)
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SOARA T-Hunt - 7/10/2005 "The T-hunt that separated the men from the boys"
I'll make no excuses, this hunt was not supposed to be easy. Following the fiasco on May 1st that resulted in the fox being found in a few minutes, we decided to make this one a little more difficult.
So why was this one so difficult? What the map doesn't show is that we were on the NE side of a 850' hill. The result was that the signal was very strong over much of south county but it actually disappeared when one drove towards it (the only access is from PCH to the west). Heiko, AD6OI, reported an S9++ signal in Foothill Ranch and anyone coming from the Mission Viejo area would hear a very strong signal as they drove down Alicia . However, they might easily be fooled into thinking that it was hidden in the regional park. The problem would be that access from the park was up a narrow trail that climbed 700' to the hill top.
The small road that is shown on the map connecting our site to Top of the World (the next peak) is also misleading. It is in fact a fire road that is blocked and marked private at the Top of the World end. We picked horizontal polarization in an effort to confuse the Doppler system that everyone now seems to have.
So how did it play out? The first to find the fox was Dale, W8RRV, who signed in at 1h 30m. His partner Karl, signed in 24 minutes later after 1h 54m. At one point we heard both Brian, NJ6N and Howard, KG6GI very strongly on the input but both were confused. Howard was still searching on the Alicia Parkway side of the hill and Brian was having difficulty hearing the fox while negotiating traffic on PCH. We eventually announced that we were in Laguna Beach and finally gave out our exact location for the folks who were still searching. So, congratulations again to W8RRV and KF6MDF - the only ones to find it without any help. This was a tough one and you guys did one heck of a job finding it at all. The team of Brian NJ6N and Tek, K6TEK stuck it out and, with a lot of help, found the fox after 3h 37m. Kareem, KG6USK made it as far at Top of the World before he gave up and went home. The team of KG6GI, KG6JAD and KG6FCT also gave up and went home rather than battling the PCH traffic to join us. Richard K6RBS |
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SOARA T-Hunt - 5/1/2005 FOX HUNT GOES TO THE DOGS !! OK, Here's how it was suppose to be. I talked one of my neighbors onto come out Sunday & bringing his "Big" Bull Dog, Bubba. Now Bubba was going to ride around the park in a wagon with the fox parked under him. AFTER the fox perked on a nearby hill for about 1/2 hour for all of the hunters to get a really good starting bearing.
Everything was ready, Richard had the picnic table staked out, Al showed up with Bubba, I had all the eats on location. Bubba was looking forward to the ride in the park, this was going to be a killer hunt!
At exactly 1 PM, and after kicking a couple of guys off the fox frequency. The hunt was on! Oh ya, now to get the dog into the wagon and let the fun begin! It would take at least a 1/2 hour before these guys even got close to the transmitter.
Driving back to the park, Richard was already telling me some one was in the park! What? Load the dog, Load the dog. Richard came back with its to late. They are running around the park. Really, they are running!
I pulled into the lot just in time to see Howard's jeep & Dale and Karl were already in the park, antennas at the ready and on the move.
There were a lot of old sayings in play here.
One was, "Age beats youths speed by treachery every time." Not this time ! Jeremy was sprinting up the hill to the T followed closely by Dale. Coming in with a time of 15 minutes, a new club record. Dale slid in at 16 minutes! This was faster than it took me to walk to the meat counter for the burgers and dogs!
Next old saying was, Well, it’s the old bull and the young bull. Howard drove them their, and Jeremy ran up the hill. Howard came in at 20 minutes. He walked up the hill, still beating the record of 38 minutes .
Al was standing by with Bubba, and damn it, Bubba wanted that ride. So we stuffed him into the wagon and off they went, fox and all. It was announced that Bubba had the transmitter, But one trip around the park and Bubba petered out. He's a big dog and decided to walk some of the way. He didn't get far in the heat. Jeremy rushed out some water but in 3/4 hour? Bubba had it. So now we were dog-less, never the less we enjoyed the company of Al and Bubba and hope they can make the next hunt. Maybe as hunters. Kareem was next on the fox at one hour, followed by Matt at 1 hour and 10 minutes. W6sqq and K6PUP made it in at one hour and 2o minutes. New hunters to our club but years of skill with clubs. Tony and Joe popped up at about the same time at 2 hours.
Dave
SOARA T-Hunt -4/3/2005 Having missed the prior hunt due to another commitment, I couldn't wait for this one. My partner Dave, KG6QCI, had purchased and assembled a new Ramsey DDF1 - Doppler Direction Finder Kit and was ready to test it in the field. The hunt was due to start at 1:00 pm with the fox being hidden by Dale, W8RRV, somewhere south of the 55 freeway in Orange County, CA. Since I hadn't seen Dave's new toy yet, we decided to meet at a local watering hole about an hour before the hunt so that he could show me how it worked and we could finalize our plans. I set off around 11:30, scanned the memories on my mobile FT857 and much to my surprise, found a weak T already transmitting on the FOX frequency. I called Dave on the cell phone and we agreed to forget the stop at the watering hole and head directly to our favorite starting point. The signal on the FOX frequency was playing the same tune as our usual fox but it had a call sign of KG6??? /T1 - I didn't actually copy the entire call before it disappeared into the noise. Once Dave arrived at our high spot, he started to demonstrate his new toy by walking around the vehicle with an HT as I watched the LED diection indicator follow his path. We then tuned the radio to the FOX frequency and there it was... the mystery fox was back at S9. The DDF1 instantly locked onto it and gave us a bearing of south west. Now, all things are fair in love, war and transmitter hunting. If we'd heard this then so had everyone else who was setting up. What should we do? We decided to move to an alternative high spot that was 5 miles south west of our location. By the time we arrived there the signal was NW of by was getting weaker. I got out my trusty tape measure yagi and by then the signal was almost down to the noise. It was now less than 10 minutes to the official start and we had a problem. Was there another T-Hunt on the same frequency? Was this a decoy? Had Dale turned the T on early by mistake? We tried to get clarification on the 440 coordination frequency where Dale denied all knowledge of the second T. So we now assumed that there was another hunt on the same frequency - this was going to get interesting. The start time came and went and we could only hear the phantom transmitter. We asked if the T was on. Dale reported that it was but nobody could hear it over the QRM. Dave made a few loops around the parking lot while I spun like a Whirling Dirvish armed with my yagi. Then I heard what I thought was the T. The tune was the same but, as I turned the antenna, a few notes were dropped as I swung from south to north. It was south of us but weak. Without hesitation, I jumped in my truck, drove over to Dave, told him what I heard and off we went - in a southerly direction. After driving for a few miles the phantom T disappeared and all we could hear was noise. Everyone on the coordination frequency was reporting the same problem. They had heard the KG6??? T but not the W8RRV one. Dale assured us that it was up and running but nobody was admitting to hearing it. After about 45 minutes, Dale agreed to give is all a clue. He said that it was in southern Orange County yet not right on the coast. At this time we were at a parking lot in Mission Viejo at the junction of Crown Valley and Marguerite. We decided it was time to move to one vehicle and head south. We continued south on Margurite until it turned in Ranch Viejo Rd. Based on Dale's clue and my only bearing, we figured it was somewhere on Ortega Highway. 02:00 PM suddenly, as we passed Golf Club Drive, the familiar sound of the T came blasting out of the noise. The DDF1 showed its direction as 10 o'clock relative to the truck - our guess was right - Ortega Highway it was.
02:10 PM, Dave grabs the gear, I grab the pen, sign in, take a copy of the finder's instructions and we're outa there. It had taken us just 10 minutes from first hearing the T to finding it buried in a concrete pipe !
================================================= SOARA T-Hunt -2/6/2005 Overall it was fun day and a new experience to everyone. The main question every one had on their mind was “how far was the transmitter?” It was loud and clear and sounded like it was just around the corner at all times!! Equipment used: Given the 8 element Yagi antenna and the 25W off the radio, I’m assuming the effective radiated power was close to 300W.
Also I hade a hard time mounting the antenna on the pole, I had
forgotten to the get the antenna mount clamp. So I had to use a rope
to tie it down to the pole, but it was moving too much, so moved it
close to a tree and used the branches as support, which did a very
good job in both holding it from moving and also it worked as a
camouflage. The transmitter was located at Quail Hill behind the pool located at Quail Hill St and Knoll Crest St. The hunt started right on time, I secured my equipment in a water tight bag to keep it safe from rain, then I head back to BBQ are to get it ready. The only one second obstacle I faced was when the sun started to
shine and clouds was clearing off. The radio got very hot inside the
bag, and the transmission would stop at the second letter of my ID.
That was at 40sec from the total transmission time of 55sec. One of the nice stories came from Dave (KG6QCI). He drove up to
Rancho Santa Margarita; I guess the signal was reflected off of
Saddle Back Mtn down to this area. It didn’t take long for every one to figure out the transmitted power, and soon at about an hour and a half through the hunt, I sow Richard (K6RBS) and Dave (KG6QCI) followed in next by 6min was Karl (KF6MDF) then about 30 min later Lou (KG6FCT) and Howard (KG6GI) showed up. Finally everyone was at the BBQ at the pool, enjoying the warm
rays of the sun peeking through the clouds with a delicious juicy
burgers and sodas. (Thank you Patty for helping with preparing the
BBQ) Kareem ================================================= SOARA T-Hunt - 1/9/2005 It wasn’t supposed to be that hard! Our SOARA Sunday T-hunts have been getting progressively more challenging, so I thought I’d try to turn the intensity down a notch or two, yet still try to keep it interesting. Richard K6RBS and Dave KG6QCI had given the group the challenge of hunting multiple transmitters in December’s hunt, and I wanted to do the same, but with a slight twist. My plan was to have one transmitter relatively easy to find, and have a second and third relatively nearby but well enough hidden that the hunters would be required to practice their “sniffing” skills. The twist to the hunt was thus: I have several Radio Shack simplex repeaters around the shack, and I decided that it might be interesting to employ one to repeat the other transmitters on the same frequency. The repeater would be relatively high power and the other radios would be lower so it wouldn’t be obvious what I had done until the hunters got close enough. First, I had to modify the repeater. These repeaters do not have a built-in identifier. I wanted to add an ID so that, if the hunters were paying attention, they might realize what was going on, not to mention making sure I was actually compliant with Part 97. I set about writing a new program to control the repeater, tested it out, and decided it was ready for use. One of the features I added to the software was an anti-kerchunk timer. This is important to note. The next task was setting up the main transmitter that would be repeated. Some number of years ago I had purchased a very low power transmitter kit, and a few custom-cut crystals for the T-Hunt frequency. When I first built the kit up, it worked, but was more than 70 kHz off. I set it aside after not being able to get it spot on. Eight years later, I finally found myself wanting to use it. After spending a few hours trying yet again to get it on the t-hunt frequency, I gave up and decided that, at 35 kHz away but running fairly stable, it would work just fine through the repeater. It wasn’t exactly what I’d wanted; I’d really have preferred all the transmitters being on the same frequency, but I figured I could work with these circumstances. The transmitter is fairly tiny; coupled with the microcontroller-based IDer I built, the whole thing is about the volume of the 9 Volt battery that powers it. I’m estimating but have yet to confirm that the transmit power is in the 20-50 mW range. The IDer cycled through four different messages, interspersed with 800 millisecond telemetry beeps every five seconds. These beeps were just short enough that they (almost never) were transmitted through the repeater due to the anti-kerchunk software. The third transmitter I planned to use was my regular “ammunition can” using an attenuator to knock the power down below 1 Watt. I selected a spot in the vicinity of the Kaleidoscope shopping center. Just behind the center to the northwest is a small strip center with a Sport Chalet and a few other shops. It seemed a pretty decent spot; I figured it would put just about everyone an equal drive from their “usual” start locations. I planned to put the second transmitter in a small park about 1/4 mile away, and the third somewhere on the same bearing line but in the opposite direction. It’s right next to the 5 freeway, which was intended to add just a bit of frustration factor (apparently this worked too well). The repeater was located in a parking lot that was part of an office complex just below the strip center. The repeater was running 5 Watts into a home made twinlead J-Pole antenna that was bungee-corded to a tree. Note that due to the bad weather and general level of frustration (more on that in a moment), no one seemed to particularly notice the setup. Once you got close enough to the repeater, it was easy to see. The first major glitch of the day was the rain. The December hunt had inclement weather, but this was heavier. Couple that with the fact that we were on day three of the bad weather, and I knew it would not make for a pleasant hunt. I decided to scale back to only two transmitters (the repeater and the small transmitter) to keep the length of the hunt reasonable. Or so I thought. The second glitch of the day was the small transmitter. Everything checked out OK in my condo, but when I tried placing the transmitter where I wanted it, the repeater could not hear it at all. Adding to this was the fact that it was now 12:58 and the hunters were already calling for the transmitter to go on the air (some of you need to adjust your clocks!). I decided to drive back to the repeater site, checking the repeater along the way. Unfortunately, or maybe not, the repeater couldn’t hear the transmitter from more than about 200 feet away. I found a spot that seemed to work, in a hedge on a street corner just across from the strip mall. I then went to my observation point in the strip center parking lot. The third glitch of the day was the small transmitter again. In the 1-1/2 hours that I tested it in my home, the transmitter stayed on frequency pretty well. However, once it was outside in colder weather, it decided to drift. The result of this was confusing for the hunters. They were receiving a strong signal from the repeater, but the audio was weak and distorted. It presented a real challenge for those that were trying to add attenuation to their antenna system until the signal got noisy. After 25 or so minutes with the transmitter drifting so far off that the repeater heard only bursts of white noise, I decided to chance being spotted by going to the repeater and changing the receive frequency. A 5 kHz shift and all was much better. It turns out that the reason the repeater couldn’t hear the main transmitter is because I had the squelch set too tight. I also backed that off while I was there. The first hunter in the area was Kareem KG6USK. He drove almost directly to the area from his starting point. I spotted him at about 1:40, but he left the area for a while. Eventually he found the repeater at around 2:35. There were instructions on the sign-in sheet and on the place tickets that what they had found was just a repeater and that the main transmitter was on a different frequency. Kareem took off in search of the “bunny” about the same time that Joe W6BGR rolled up to the repeater. Kareem was having problems finding the main transmitter, and I thought for a moment that Joe might beat him, but it was not so. An hour later, the rest of the hunters started to arrive. I offered a clue to anyone listening to the repeater, on the simplex coordination frequency I was using, and once or twice on the T-Hunt frequency to read the sign-in sheet carefully. Apparently, two hunters who shall remain nameless didn’t read the instructions nor were they listening to their radios, because shortly after finding the repeater, they took off. The fourth glitch of the day was the rain again. About 3:45, it started really coming down. This made for very uncomfortable hunting conditions. It was so heavy that the hunters did not want to get out of their cars, and I don’t blame them. Richard was having fairly serious equipment problems and decided that he was finished for the day. By 4:10 it seemed that everyone was done, so I went to go shut down the radios. About this time, the two hunters who had taken off had returned. They went to a local restaurant, and just happened to read their place tickets and saw that they were NOT done hunting. They came back just about the time I was pulling up to the main transmitter, so I just kept driving and went to a different vantage point so I could laugh and point, er, sympathise with their plight. Apparently the signal from the transmitter was all over the hillside, and with the pouring rain, none of the remaining hunters seemed too pleased with me. Sorry, guys! The winner of this very frustrating hunt is Kareem, KG6USK, who found both the repeater and main transmitter first. I’m still waiting for the explanation of the “coincidence” of a sizable group of you ending up in the same watering hole at more or less the same time. . . De KE6ALM =============================================== SOARA T-Hunt - 12/05/2004
Knowing what we know, knowing the skill of our hunters, and
knowing that some of these guys find the fox in short time. We
decided that to entertain the fast guys, we would put up a 2nd fox.
BUT not so far off of the main fox frequency as to not be heard
first. Weaker yes, but still their. The trap being laid, the rain coming down, cold, and near
Christmas. We wondered just how many hams we could scare out of
their cozy shacks to seek the fox's ? Or was I sitting in my car, in front of Mr. & Mrs. Suburbia's
house with a set of field glasses for nothing. How long until they
called the cops? 925 suspect, possibly armed, in a vehicle described as a ford
explorer with a large afghani flag on the back. Has been sitting in
front of Mr. John Doe's house for the last 3 hours. Suspect is
looking a something in the park with field glass's and talking on a
big radio of some sort. Mr. Doe has spotted an ammo box in the park
hooked to wires, that he belives to be a bomb. Ya, that would even get Orange Count Sheriffs to show up. Well it took about 2 shakes of a lambs tail after the opening
announcement to get get a response from hunters at the ready. They came! K6ALN Matt was first in with a time of 1 hour and 8
minutes. While he was on the fox, Kareem KG6USK pulled into the
parking lot and never saw Matt leaving the fox. Not believing his
good luck on the reading, Kareem left with out getting the fox. Then
Karl KF6MDF snuck in with a time of 2 hours and 17 minutes. Tony and Lou bailed from the bar, telling Richard they were NOT
going to look for the first fox (they lied). Richard told them it
was at the ball park, so they made that stop to pick up on the first
fox. They found it but didn't sign in. Much to the delight of the
hunters at the bar, a running commentary of the hunt in the park was
being transmitted back to the bar on 144.375. Hay, I was getting
bored!
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SOARA T-Hunt - 11/07/2004 (2 reports) Getting into the excitement of hiding the transmitter, I decided
to build my own Yagi antenna. I researched for a MS Windows based Yagi construction software,
bought the materials, and I came up with a 6 element copper 1/2inch
pipe that was about 7’.8” long!! I finished building the antenna that morning and I tested it out
using a frequency match. At 12:30 I was at the park setting up the equipment. It took some
time to assemble the antenna and raise it on two poles, but thanks
Patty, with out her help and some helpful suggestion from her about
using the tree bushes as a support to hold the antenna from
swinging; the hunt might not have been up on time. However after a quick test, I found out that the signal was not heard far enough .As I expected, the signal was not strong due to the design of the antenna. Fortunately Matt had let me borrow one of his many antennas, which was a 3 element Yagi . It worked pretty well. It didn’t even need an antenna tuner It had a build in gamma match. The T-hunt started at 1:00pm, and the signal was heard all the way to the 55HWY “ thanks to Matt for saving the T-hunt day” The transmitter was hidden in Thomas B. Riley Wilderness Park.
Pointing to true north. Locating the transmitter was fairly confusing. The fact that there was only one road to the T ( OSO and Margarita) and the signal would drop at that area lead to a conclusion that hunter had driven too far!! The transmitter location turned out to be more of a challenge
than I first thought it would be for my first T-hiding. Also from the hunters feed back, the signal was strongest at
further south in the general area of Crown Valley and north in the
general area of Irvine!!!! My only explanation to Irvine’s phenomena is that it lies
directly under the Antennas line of sight.
In my opinion, the best method for this hunt was team work
working on triangulation method.. Followed in third was Karl (KF6MDF) at 68 min. I must say, he did a good job given the fact that he was working alone and was able to arrive in a short time too. It was fun listening to Tony (AE6QT) getting lost at HWY 55!! But then he figured it out by around 2 o’clock that the T is in the general area of Mission Viejo. As a matter of fact, he repeatedly came across Oso and Margarita but he gave up around 4:30pm. Howard (KG6GI) was also in the hunt, he came close, but not enough. Matt survived all the way till 5pm “true hunter” didn’t give up.
He came very close to Antonio and Oso. Unfortunately the cable he
had to build that morning broke and he wasn’t able to take any
barring. Thus he decided to rely solely on his mobile radio by plotting signal strength marks on a map and basically playing it by the ear. Kareem R (KG6USK) ========================================== Richard, K6RBS, Misses Breaking Old Record Of 37 Minutes By Finding Fox In 38 Minuets!! What an animal!
The hunt was set up by Kareem KG6USK and was assisted by his beautiful companion, Patti. Both staked out a spot in the Riley Wilderness Park in south county, and braved the rain. Waiting for our arrival (see picture with Kareem and Fox) A few short minuets after I arrived, by wagon, Karl KF6MDF popped up. No surprise as he's usually in the top 5, but their was someone missing, and Richard knew just who it was. He encouraged Kareem to make a few calls on the 440 to see who else might still be seeking the fox. No response, and to amuse Patti, Richard and I had a short conversation on the radio but got no rise our of any of our hunting brethren. We assured Kareem that others WERE still hunting but not speaking so we told him to stand by and for sure he would be hearing form him... Sure-nuff, just on our leaving I heard Toney AE6QT, who started late, then Howard KG6GI came out from under the wraps. As of this writing I'm not sure when Toney and Howard found the fox but I'm sure it was shortly after we left. It seems that the beam that was on the fox, along with its location. Provided plenty of shadows thus making this a tricky hunt. Depending on were you started. Good Job Kareem and Patti. Next hiders? Richard and Dave. Oh, yea, count on some fun with his one. Tales will be told for years about this. Not hard, just fascinating. Dave / KG6QCI |
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SOARA T-hunts By: Howard Brown (KG6GI) (Edits by K6RBS) SOARA has initiated an informal transmitter hunting activity on the first Sunday of each month. We plan to continue the activity on the first Sunday of the month as long as there is continued interest. Each month the winner from the prior month gets to hide the T. The following information will guide the next hunt. I may revise the rules as the days get longer and as the hunters get more skilled. Hunt Frequency: 146.565 MHz. Boundary Area: South Orange County not further north than state route 55. Coordination Frequency: 445.660 mHz (EchoLink will be disabled before the start of the hunt). Announcements will be made on the coordination frequency and occasionally on the t-hunt frequency. The hunt-master can be contacted for information (which he may or may not offer) on the coordination frequency. You can use this frequency to help each other; or lie to each other. SOARA members can monitor the action. Hunt Times (subject to change): Start Time = 1300 Clues (if requested) = 1500 End Time = 1600 Hidden Transmitter Characteristics: Sixty (60) seconds of a repeating eight tone sequence followed by the CWID "KG6GI/T 1". The transmitter then goes off the air for the remainder of the cycle. The sequence repeats every 75 seconds. Power level ~ 500 milli-watt Things you may want to bring along: 1. Directional antenna w/ radio 2. Separate communications radio 3. Attenuator ( 80 dB) 4. Magnetic Compass (Declination = 15 degrees east in this area) 5. South County map 6. Protractor or plotter 7. Straight edge 8. Pencil, pen or market for drawing vectors on may. 9. Thomas Brothers map book (It will be used for clues) At the Hidden Transmitter:When the hidden transmitter is located, you will find a plastic envelope containing a spiral notebook and a sheet of numbered tickets. Note your call and time of arrival in the notebook. Tear off the lowest numbered ticket and note your call and the time on the ticket. The ticket includes a special frequency to contact me for further instructions. |
I
chose a good spot behind the trees that was good enough to have the
hunters get out of their vehicles and go on foot to locate the T.
I
perused in at about 50 minutes, of course I was a little slow as I
was on a Studebaker Log Wagon (see pic).