Mobile T-Hunts for Beginners

Southern California has many mobile transmitter hunts every month, ranging from simple to very long and difficult. For hunts where everyone starts at the same place, you can show up there just before the hunt starts and it's likely that someone will offer you a ride-along.

Once you have your RDF equipment and vehicle ready, here are two hunts in Los Angeles and Orange Counties that are ideal for first-timers:

Fullerton Radio Club (FRC) hunt. Go to the top of Skyline Drive in Fullerton, just east of Acacia Avenue, and sign in at about 7:45 PM on the third Saturday of each month. (Nowadays, you can only park on the north side of Skyline.) The transmitter goes on the air at 8 PM on 146.565 MHz simplex. To win, your mission is to find the transmitter (there's just one) with the shortest elapsed odometer mileage. The transmission will be continuous and be from within these boundaries:

  Along 10 freeway from 605 freeway to 71 freeway

  Along 71 freeway from 10 freeway to 91 freeway

  Straight line from 91/71 intersection to Jamboree/Chapman intersection in Orange

  Along Jamboree Road from Chapman/Jamboree to Jamboree/PCH intersection in Newport Beach

  Along PCH between Jamboree Road and San Gabriel River

  Along San Gabriel River between PCH and 22 freeway

  Along 605 freeway from 22 freeway to 10 freeway

The FRC hidden transmitter must be within 100 feet of access by standard passenger car. The hunt usually ends at 11 PM, unless the hider agrees to keep the T on the air for teams that haven't found it yet. A restaurant for post-hunt gorging and story-swapping may be announced at the finish.

South Orange Amateur Radio Association (SOARA) hunt. Start from anywhere in the Laguna Hills area on the first Sunday of the month at 1:00 PM. Listen and hunt for the hidden transmitter on 146.565 MHz simplex, but also listen to the SOARA repeater on 147.645 (-) PL110.9 for hunt coordination information. The transmitter will be within a 15-mile circle from the El Toro Road exit of Interstate 5. Click for a map of these boundaries in PDF format. To help beginners, the hider may give some hints after a while.

For general information about southern California mobile hunts, plus equipment suggestions, see the article "Let's Go T-Hunting" at this site.

For current southern California mobile T-hunting news, including upcoming hunts and results, see the Southern California Transmitter Hunters Web site by Steve Heinemann N6XFC and Deryl Crawford N6AIN. Web sites about other Los Angeles area Saturday night hunts and the southern California All-Day hunts are on the Links page of this site. There you will find links to sites about hunts in San Diego, Santa Barbara, and the Antelope Valley.

See you on the hunt!

Joe Moell KØOV
k0ov@homingin.com

You never know what you'll find at the end of a mobile T-hunt. For the August 2001 Fullerton Radio Club hunt, I used this motorized mount (originally made by the late Clarke Harris WB6ADC) to sweep the quad slowly back and forth. It sprayed the signal up and down Pacific Coast Highway and across the buildings at Hoag Memorial Hospital in Newport Beach for lots of moving reflections. To see a dozen night-vision photos of another typical FRC T-hunt, click here.

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This page updated 23 February 2008