back to epic tales of hidden transmitters

Downtown Bridge:


Sorry I don't recall the year. But it was my turn to hide the transmitter, and I had decided to hide it by a
bridge downtown. There are about five roads that cross the short span from one side to the other, and they
all have pretty easy access under them due to the rocks piled up on the water side of the dike. So I selected
a bridge and we went down there to find someplace to put it.

At that point I had the 102-inch whip (covered in black tape), some coax, a car battery, and the transmitter
box. I finally decided to just set everything on one side of an i-beam and call it good. Just laid the antenna
down along the length. Probably had a horrible SWR. I didn't really care, it was a tough radio.

So, unsurprisingly, an antenna placed like that gets out pretty terribly. BUT if you go within five or so
blocks of the river, the signal suddenly starts coming up. And if you are crossing ANY bridge, the signal just
absolutely destroys your meter. EXCEPT on the bridge the transmitter was mounted under. And then as soon as
you get off one of the other bridges, the signal goes sharply down.

This caused the hunters a problem. They couldn't exactly park on the bridge, and their best signal was from
any of several bridges. So they KNEW it was down there by the river, but they had no idea WHERE. It was just
belting out a huge signal all up and down the river, with no clear indication of where it was better or worse.
I wasn't around to watch them hunt for it, but I'm told they had a very frustrating time trying to locate it.

They got a MUCH better signal approaching any bridge except the one it was one, due to the bridge itself
blocking the signal. So that kept them away from the one bridge they needed to be searching.




last updated 11/15/2023 at 10:49:52