I'm really glad I participated in Paul's realistic JAMMER
hunt. Believe me, learning how to hunt these elusive transmitters can
only be experienced.Starting out this hunt,
Rich-KN6FW used his interferometer setup and read a good initial bearing
of 60* to the communicator and the jammer. (The actual bearing was 58*).
I used my 4-element 2-meter beam and read an initial bearing of 52*.
Accuracy aside, I had a difficult time reading both transmitters. Since
both transmitters had different signal strengths, I had to add or
subtract attenuation from my beam and since both transmitters were
intermittent and transmitting mostly at the same time, I could not dial
attenuation in quick enough.
Trying to drive a path along my initial bearing, I
ended up at a large building in downtown Stockton, where the
communicator was located. Using my beam setup with the Scout-40
frequency counter, I pointed up the building and found the strongest
signal coming from atop the roof on the back side.
Driving away from the Communicator, I zeroed in on the
jammer, transmitting from his house, not to far from the communicator.
That was pretty easy.
Finding the repeater was a different story, I
initially had a difficult time finding a road at did not dead-end. After
multiple "Not a Through Road" signs on surface streets, I decided to hit
the freeway. I drove south on freeway-5 and when I thought I finished
driving, I drove some-more. Eventually my Doppler started to turn right,
indicating I should exit the freeway. Taking the highway-132 exit I
drove down Chrisman Rd (a dead-end road), not more than 1/2 mile from
the repeater.
Not wanting to ask Paul for hints, I saw a possible
back way in on my GPS map and drove around further south. This turned
out to be a dirt road and to further make matters worst, it didn't lead
to the repeater site.
I drove around un-chartered territory until a
farmer asked if I needed help and I was able to followed him up to the
repeater.
Paul hosted a really good hunt. The equipment was very
elaborate and the jammer setup was extremely realistic. If Paul does
another one of these hunts, you have to participate.
Equipment I Used:
1) Icom
R3 (Receiver): used for both my initial bearing receiver and my
U-R-Here radio.
2) Arrow 4-element
(Beam): used for my initial bearing and close-in direction finder.
3) Optoelectronics Scout-40
(frequency counter): used as my close-in receiver.
4) Garmin
StreetPilot-III (Maps): used to plot the shortest distance to the
transmitter.
5) AHHA Microfinder-I
(Doppler): used to instantly know the direction of the transmitter.
6) Standard C5900A
(Mobile radio): used to scan both transmitter frequencies and talk on
the talk-in channel.