My first "find"...uh, double, no um triple "find"...

[Duke Dillio]

So there I was.....

Got an alert last night for a target in the Stockton area.  The initial SARSAT merge had it about 30 miles outside of Stockton.  I get geared up, call out a team and we get out on the road.  We got an aircrew up and they came down to the Stockton area.  When we are about 30 miles out of town, we get a call from the aircrew that they have a weak signal at Stockton airport.  We had driven right by the airport with our DF gear on and didn't hear anything so we turn around and head back.  When we get back to the airport, the aircrew tells us that the target is on the north end of the field.  Our equipment is telling us that it is on the south end.  We pursue the target to the south.  As we are driving up, we see a guy going into a maintenance hangar so we ask if we can poke our DF unit in there real quick just to rule it out.  When we put the sticks in, the DF goes crazy.  We end up finding an active ELT on one of the aircraft (sitting on the horizontal stabilizer and disconnected from the battery.)  We silence it thinking that it's all good and we can go home...

By that time, the aircrew had landed.  We informed them that we had silenced the ELT.  They call back and tell us that they still have a target.  We go over to the tower to link up with them and sure enough there is another signal.  We start to DF this one and find that there isn't just one but two more signals...

We split up into threes with the aircrew helping us out.  One team found another active ELT on an aircraft stacked in with a bunch of others between two hangars.  After the local sheriff's arrived, they gained access to the aircraft and turned the switch on the ELT to the "OFF" position but it continued to transmit.  They had to remove the battery from the unit to get it to shut off.

The team that I was with continued DFing the third signal.  We were able to narrow it down to the inside of a large hangar but were unable to gain access to the hangar.  We got the info to the IC and called it a night.  Who knows how many more are active up there today.....

[JoeTomasone]

When we are about 30 miles out of town, we get a call from the aircrew that they have a weak signal at Stockton airport.  We had driven right by the airport with our DF gear on and didn't hear anything so we turn around and head back.

I had one like that.   Weak battery, internal antenna - drove by on the highway 1mi away from the airport and never heard it.  Fortunately, we launched an aircraft from that airport and THEY heard it.

When we get back to the airport, the aircrew tells us that the target is on the north end of the field.  Our equipment is telling us that it is on the south end.  We pursue the target to the south. 

Did one of the others wind up being on the North end of the field?

[Duke Dillio]

The three ELT's were south, middle, and north.