Hunt date: April 21, 2007 Start: 6:00 PM from the Pleasanton start point. One hidden mobile transmitter, 146.490 MHz. Scoring method: Mileage and time. The hider was, Gary-WB6YRU The winner was, Rich-KN6FW

Hi Jim, If you're interested in writing up something for the T hunt web site, here's what happened: This was a challenge hunt--the transmitter was mobile. This hunt had a theme: It's cops and robbers! The T was a simulated stolen vehicle equipped with LoJack. The hunters were the cops. (see below) The path was: 6:00 Start on Greenville a little north of Tesla (east Livermore). 6:13 Started moving at 6:13 north. West on Patterson, north on Vasco, cross 580 and west on Dalton. Kept going more or less west until reaching N. Livermore Ave. 6:24 Paused briefly at N. Livermore, then headed south. Got onto 580 west and got off at Airport BLVD and went up to Las Positas College. 6:36 Paused at the College, (thief meets a buddy there for a joy ride) 6:46 Headed back out, south on Airport BLVD, cross 580, headed east, north on N. Livermore, west on 580, went to the normal Pleasanton start point. (thief wants to take in the view) 7:20 Arrived at our usual start point 7:27 Back down the hill, south on Foothill, west on Bernal, north on Main to the Round Table Pizza. (thief is hungry) 7:43 Arrived at Round Table, stayed there. Winner: At the college, Rich KN6FW surprised me by pulling behind me. He was the winner: mileage 24.8, time 6:43. Rich said he was pretty much following me starting on Vasco after crossing 580. He said if he had been a cop chasing a stolen vehicle, he probably would have started the hot pursuit just after I turned onto Dalton from Vasco. That would have been around 6:20, a mere 20 minutes after the start! Roughly 23 miles. You were a scary good cop, Rich! Hunters: Rich KN6FW 24.8 miles, 43 minutes Bob AF6VSE ~24 miles, 2.0 hours Ron N7TVE dropped out at 7:25, having gone about 34 miles. Normally the ten percent rule applies, but in this case, Rich is the clear winner, having officially caught the thief after only 43 minutes. Bob bagged the bad guy just as he was getting his pizza. ================================================================== I was concerned about giving unwanted hints. If I announced up front that this was to be a simulated LoJack hunt, everyone would know the T would be mobile. What to do? At the previous Pleasanton hunt, I asked everyone if I should announce the theme even if it meant giving a clue as to what I was doing. It was unanimous: GIVE NO HINTS. Still, I made the offer on the remailer to let anyone know what the theme is (and resulting hint) by private e-mail if they asked. No one did. Shortly before Rich "caught" me, he mentioned on the talk-in that the T was mobile. When I arrived at the Pleasanton star point, I announced the theme (since the cat was already out of the bag). At that time Ron dropped out. Ron, seemed upset that I did not announce ahead of time that the T was mobile. Later, Rich thought that might have been a good idea. As a result, we decided that a couple of new rules need to be made: 1) Mobile transmitter hunts must be announced in advance, even if it's a challenge hunt. 2) Approximate distance must be announced in advance. This is yet to be nailed down, but it would be something along these lines: * Nearby Distance -- within a city and surrounding communities, out to perhaps ten or twenty miles. * Medium Distance -- within approximately 50 miles, like our Bay hunts. * Long Distance -- could be anything up to a couple of hundred miles, such as a pack-a-lunch hunt that could be across the central valley. ==================================================================== If anyone asked about the theme, this is what I would have sent: There'll be no "fox" this time--it's Cop's 'n Robbers! A thief has stolen a car in Pleasanton. Unbeknownst to the thief, the car is equipped with LoJack on 146.49. The thief could be anywhere in the greater Pleasanton Livermore area. You hunters are the cops. Find the stolen car! (If you want additional clues, let me know and I'll tell you the year, make, model and color.) If the car is parked, treat it like a regular stationary transmitter. If the car is moving or for some reason you can't actually get to it, you can still "make the bust" by getting on the talk-in or 446.00, and tell me what unusual marks you see on the driver side door. Note: those marks may change, so don't depend on what you may hear. The thief may move around part of the time, all the time, or not at all. Since you don't want to give the thief too much time, the winner will be determined by both the usual minimum distance traveled and the order in which you catch the thief. However, driving fast won't necessarily help; in fact, that may cause you to rack up more mileage. Note: In this hunt it makes sense to work together. However, some people don't want any hints. So don't discuss this on the talk-in. If you team up with other "cops" (hunters), use a different frequency. Good luck! 73, Gary WB6YRU (aka the thief) P.S. LoJack http://www.lojack.com/ http://www.lojack.com/what/index.cfm ========================================================= So, Jim... I'm not sure how much of this you will want to include in the write-up on the web site for this hunt. If you like, just include the first part and I'll post the rest myself to the remailer. We especially will probably want to give that part about the new rules separate treatment. 73, Gary