Joe Corones, N6SAO, and Joe Laughlin, KE6PHB, put on an annual ARDF meet down in San Diego this past weekend, and congratulations to Scott Moore, KF6IKO (US ARDF Team member from Santa Barbara) for winning the event!
Here is a summary of the hunt:
May 23rd 2015 San Diego T-Hunt Group On-Foot T-Hunt Summary
It was a dark, foggy and stormy afternoon with visibility a hundred feet or so and a nippy 40 degrees when Joe, KE6PHB and I, N6SZO pulled into Mary, KJ6ZIW's cabin in the Laguna Mountains of San Diego county on Friday afternoon May 22nd. We have used this cabin several times in the past for Ham Radio related events but had never seen weather like this before. We wanted to get up there early and possibly put out the 5 hidden T's on Friday afternoon instead of running around on Saturday morning. Joe, KE6PHB, had finally reached the point on his new "PHB-101" transmitter design so that we could put them out on Friday set to come on at 10 AM Saturday but it was just too darn cold! We huddled up in the cabin and checked all the other gear, practice T, back up Pic-Con's, HT’s, borrowed sniffers, batteries, locks & cables, etc. The cabin was finally warmed up with the space heater so we almost got a good night’s sleep anticipating good weather in the morning. Unfortunately, the weather forecast did not live up to its forecast and it was still cold, wet and foggy. Luckily we could drive a loop and not have to walk through miles of wet brush to set out the T’s. We spotted the last T at 9:30 and headed back to the cabin to prepare for the onslaught of hunters? With the weather this bad we were wondering what we were doing here? Hunters started arriving and the first team went out at 10:25 AM. The last team started at 1:55, just short of the 2:00 PM deadline we had set so we could start the BBQ around 3:30. The only deviation we made during the day was to allow KJ6VOC and his 3 sons Daniel, Aaron and David to take a break during the hunt for a “Dinner Stop” as they were one T short at 3:30. After dinner they located the 5th T and checked back in.
RESULTS OF MAY 23rd. ON-FOOT T-HUNT
1 Hr. 34 minutes Scott Moore, KF6IKO Single Hunter from Santa Barbara, came the Greatest distance Winner, 5 T’s.
1 Hr. 55 minutes The “Mickey Mouse” Team, Bill Elkerton, W6ZM, Robin Elkerton, KC6LEA, Brian Elkerton, KI6DUR & Nicky? This was a husband/wife, father/son & boyfriend/girlfriend team Winner, Kind of a “Flash Hunt Mob”, 5 T’s.
2 Hr. 04 minutes Greg and Karen Spaulding, W6BAF & KG6FON,Husband and wife team Winner, 5 T’s.
2 Hr. 55 minutes Mark Ording, K6KHO & son Trevor, father and 1 son team Winner, 5 T’s
2 Hr. 58 minutes Dick Foran, WB6ZAM Single local hunter Winner, 5 T’s.
4 Hr. 03 minutes Tom, KJ6VOC Father & sons, Daniel, Aaron & David, 3 sons team Winner.
1 Hr. 00 minutes Jim & Keela, non Hams but gave it a try Winners …..2 T’s.
So we had a total of 18 people on site with 16 Hunters, not bad for an “ALL WEATHER/ALL TERRANE T-HUNT”. BBQ was outside with most everyone eating inside due to cold weather.
We look forward to seeing more folks out on next year’s hunt. It should be at a lower elevation and much better weather. Thank You for the BBQ Donations….. Every bit helps!
Joe N6SZO & Joe KE6PHB