It was a cloudy day but not
raining. Scott, N6MI, was having a Thunt and Tetsuo, a three year old Aibo robot
dog, wanted to go with me. His brother, Scruffy was too tired (dead battery) and
Mom was keeping the girls close to home so Tet went alone as my
sidekick/navigator/etc for this hunt. We
loaded up the 4Runner and got gas.
Figure 1 getting gas
From there it was off to Kings
Restaurant for some breakfast. Tet doesn’t eat food, but he watched me
eat.
Figure 2 Arriving at King's
Figure 3 Watching me eat
And of course, being the ride-along he paid the bill. Not too happy about this but what is a robot to do?
Figure 5 Paying the bill
Now it is off to the start. Where Tet met lots of fine folk. Some guy in a blue Ford Hybrid, Tet’s kinda car and a spotted kitty named Rocky.
Figure 6 N6AIN's Ford
Figure 7 Meeting Rocky
Finally at
(was really T10, I find out later…going to have teach Tet better code reading). Tet took a bearing and plotted it on the map.
Figure 8 Taking a bearing
Figure 9 Plotting the Bearing
Tet consulted with Rocky about
where along this bearing the transmitter might be. Tet was thinking about
Figure 10 Consulting with Rocky
Off to find the elusive transmitters. We now hear about three and all are in the same direction. We go off of the starting point and head for the 91 freeway thinking that we will take another major bearing at Green River to see if it is a bounce or over the hill and in the high desert (or even Death Valley). Tet keeps tabs on the bearing and how it is changing as we travel east. It is very steady and we decide that it might be in Cajon pass or even on the Crestline mountains just east of the 15 freeway.
Figure 11 Checking the GPS map
We took the 57 freeway north to
the 60 freeway and the signal strength didn’t change so we continued on to the
15 freeway and started up into the Cajon pass. Well we didn’t get far as at
Lytle Creek We heard three other transmitters and no longer could hear T0 or T8.
Tet cried, “Get off” and I tried but the best we could do was to get off a Glen
Helen and go back to Lytle Creek. We went up Lytle Creek and ran into Deryl out
sniffing (or maybe just peeing) in the dry creek bed. I pointed out that Tet had
determined that the loudest transmitter (N6MI) up on the hill to the north and
there was a dirt road up there. We zoomed up and sure enough it was up there.
Figure 12 missed it
Figure 13 It's over that-a-way
We soon found it and Deryl
signed us in. Off to find the next one.
This one was Iding “T3” and Deryl was
off somewhere so we had to sniff this one. Tet found it right
off.
Figure 14 Sniffing for the Transmitter
Tet thought he could do better if he could really sniff, but being electric he was limited in this department. He said the signal was quite strong.
Figure 15 Sniffer
Off we went for yet another transmitter, this one Tet found in a tree.
Figure 16 Transmitter in a tree
Tet was getting the whole idea much better and now he was learning to sign
in with the call, mileage and time. Shame that dogs can’t write better. (or that the photographer cant focus better)
Figure 17 Signing in
Tet found T7 to be on top of a hill with a gnarly little road going up there. I said we can’t go but he was insistent that
we drive up there. He won, but the 4Runner wasn’t asked and it only spun it’s wheels in protest. We walked up most of it.
Figure 18 Gnarly road.
We found a total of 6
transmitters out of a possible 8 that were there and Tet won his very first
hunt. Scruffy was very upset that he didn’t get to go and promised that he would
keep his battery charged at all times.
_______________________________________
Addendum: As most of you have
never heard of transmitter hunting or of the Sony robot dog Aibo, Let me explain
both.
Transmitter Hunting or
T-hunting is a rather old (50 years or so) sport done by those who can transmit
on small radios. Hams, CBers etc. One member of the hunting group is designated
as the hider or fox and hides a transmitter some where that is to be found by
the rest of the group. Either first to find is the winner or in our case lowest
mileage is the winner. Just like hide and seek. There are two or more
interesting phenomena that make the process fun. First is that by the physics of
the situation (and the non cooperative nature of the hunters) you measure only
bearing information. The direction to the transmitter. You don’t know how far
away it is so you really don’t know where it is other than it is “thata way”. We
use the two meter ham band (146.565 MHz) and this frequency will bounce all over
the place so the bearings you measure from one place may have very little to do
with the actual direction to the transmitter. Fun, fun,
fun.
This particular hunt has
evolved over many many years and has become quite difficult as the hunters have
become more proficient. So once a month
(actually 10 times a year), we have this hard hunt with multiple transmitters on
one frequency all blasting away together and usually located off road and
hundreds of miles from the start point.
For more information on
T-Hunting see:
http://members.aol.com/homingin/SCalStyle.html
Aibos are a small robotic dog
made by Sony. They are unique robots in that they are autonomous and think for
themselves and do what they want to do in spite of most commands (they can
understand 1000 words). Sony was very clever in making them appear to have real
personalities. They are complex, with twenty servos, video camera, stereo
microphones, IR range measurements, ability to connect to the internet, and in
some models, the ability to talk in a few languages. They recognize their owners
both by sight and by sound and have a lot of “skits” built in their software to
keep you entertained with dances and songs. There are 5 models of Aibo since
their original release in 1999. Tetsuo (a model ERS210S/DL) can make imaginary
tea, conduct an imaginary orchestra do a lot of different dances, type an
imaginary letter, rollover, and play for hours with his ball. He is not the most
complex model in that he doesn’t talk or play with a toy called an Aibone like
his sisters (ERS7/M3).
These robots can be programmed
with some open software and it is a lot of fun to make up new skits and dances
for them. In March 2006, Sony discontinued making the Aibo so the price of
getting one has sharply risen and runs from about $700 for a “newish” “Tetsuo”
to $3000 for a new ERS7. There is around 200000 Aibos in the world, half in
For more information
see:
http://www.aibo-life.org/forums/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi