Land Ops ARC Land Ops Thoughts from the Road

PodCast Featuring Land Ops

Chris Doering — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 18:47:06 GMT

Rigged for Dirt
PODCAST https://www.riggedfordirt.com/podcast/episode/8f3960f3/ep67-chris-doering-founder-of-land-ops-8821-548-pm

I met Frank and Ali at Patch Coffee in Lake Forest, California. They host a meet and greet event called "Rigs and Coffee". We had a great time meeting different people with all different types of rigs.

The PODCAST was not planned, it was spur of the moment, organic and lots of fun chatting. They broke out the equipment and went at it.

New Kind of Op

Chris Doering — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 20:34:05 GMT

There's a new kind of op on the horizon that is being added to our playbook!

Deploy by Day, Play by Night

WATCH FOR THIS OP IN EARLY 2021

Documentary Released - Lucky Nugget

Chris Doering — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 04:45:20 GMT

Research/Adventure Documentary
"Mysteries of Lucky Nugget"
A Story about the Old Woman Meteorite

The long awaited release of the Lucky Nugget documentary is here!

This story and filming was over a year in the making by the volunteers at Land Ops Adventure Radio Club.

What’s It about?
In 1976 two prospectors discovered a national treasure. It was the second largest meteorite to be found in the United States and they named it Lucky Nugget, but their claim and the name would not prevail. It was later officially named Old Woman Meteorite after the mountain range where it was discovered. The two prospectors who found it were searching for the lost arch gold mine. Their search yielded a much greater discovery and yet they received no reward or finders fee.

What’s so unusual about this discovery?

There are a handful of mysteries that surround this meteorite discovery which we bring to light in this short 30 minute documentary.

1. Why was there no reward issued?

2. What were the odds of this discovery?

3. How did something so large (6070 pounds) leave no impact crater?

4. How did it end up where it was found?

5. Why was the documentation so poorly recorded?

6. Why was extra fencing installed at the access road?

Land Ops, amateur radio in the rough!

Video Trip Report - Return to Monache Meadows

Chris Doering — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 23:59:33 GMT

Trip Report
Return to Monache Meadows (June 2018)

The Land Ops adventure radio club is a mobile radio adventure club based in California, but with a forum that is available to all to join as a member and coordinate adventure games involving navigation, off road exploration and radio communications.

Land Ops ARC call sign is KM6HJV and is affiliated as an ARRL radio club.

OCRACES Meeting Report

Chris Doering — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 16:08:19 GMT

Communications
OCRACES Presentation
Orange County Sheriff’s Department Communications

Land Ops was invited by Ken Bourne W6HK to speak at the OCRACES meeting last Monday June 4^th. Jim Biram K6JKB (pictured with the group below) and myself (Chris Doering) shared for about 30 minutes and played a few club video clips.

Land Ops member Matt Obermayer KF6BRC, also a RACES member, attended as representing both organizations.

We’ve been invited back and, in general, our members are considered qualified candidates for RACES membership.

Watch for future announcements for RACES meetings.

New Club Promo Video 2018

Chris Doering — Sun, 03 Jun 2018 22:01:28 GMT

Adventure Documentary Segment
"Presented by...Land Ops ARC"
Club Segment from Mysteries of Lucky Nugget

This short video is the segment "Presented by Land Ops Adventure Radio Club in the documentary named mysteries of Lucky Nugget (soon to be released)

Mysteries Of Lucky Nugget - update

Chris Doering — Tue, 29 May 2018 22:10:00 GMT

Adventure Documentary
Mysteries of Lucky Nugget
Documentary Release

The club documentary "Mysteries of Lucky Nugget", a story about the mysteries surrounding the second largest meteorite to be found in the U.S. is due to release shortly. Scheduled for June 6th. Sneak previews are available this weekend for certain backers of the project.

Updates will be posted here on this blog page.

We're very delighted at how this project came together. We feel the 33 minute documentary accurately depicts our quest to solve the mysteries.

Land Ops Preso with Em Comm Group (RACES)

Chris Doering — Sat, 26 May 2018 01:46:49 GMT

Communications
Land Ops Presentation at
Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES)
Monday June 4^th, 2018

Land Ops has been invited to do a presentation about “Land Ops” during the RACES meeting in the city of Orange on Monday June 4^th at 7:30PM.

Address is 840 N. Eckhoff Street, Suite 104, Orange, California

This meeting is open to a limited number of Land Ops members. It would be nice if you can make this meeting and support Chris Doering, KI6QBM and Jim Biram K6JKB. We will be conducting a presentation and playing the most recent (not yet seen) Club promo video for 2018.

http://landops.wildapricot.org/event-2946198

Possible Meteorite Impact Location Found

Chris Doering — Thu, 17 May 2018 16:18:39 GMT

4x4 Adventures | Communications | Navigation
Mysteries of Lucky Nugget – Update
Possible Impact Location Found

During the last filming op Fernando and Chris hiked to the meteorite discovery site once again. John Emig monitored them both using APRS from basecamp.

During this research trip Fernando recognized a debris field of smaller rock fragments including magnetically embedded rocks.

Watch the upcoming release of “Mysteries of Lucky Nugget” documentary. Only weeks away.

Monache Meadows Overland by gm4x4

Chris Doering — Thu, 17 May 2018 04:04:01 GMT

4x4 Adventures
Hats off to Greg Martin KK6PRV
Land Ops Overlanding in Monache Meadows

Another great video to peak your interest in preparation of Monache Meadows

Operator KK6PRV Monache Access Tour

Chris Doering — Wed, 16 May 2018 03:46:09 GMT

4x4 Adventures
Monache Video Tour
by Greg Martin KK6PRV

Google Earth Access Tour - Monache Meadows

Chris Doering — Sun, 13 May 2018 21:33:18 GMT

4x4 Adventures
Access Tour – Monache Meadows
Google Earth Overview of Area

A quick video overview of Monache Meadows, California starting from Hwy 195 (east side of Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.

Join Land Ops for “Return to Monache Meadows” June 8^th and 9^th, 2018.

Wet Your Appetite for Monache Meadows

Chris Doering — Thu, 10 May 2018 02:23:09 GMT

4x4 Adventure
Monache Meadows
Wet Your Appetite

The next Land Ops event is scheduled for Saturday June 9th in Monache Meadows, California. We'll be posting updates here on this blog as the event gets closer.

If you haven't been to Monache Meadows here's a video from an earlier scouting op.

It had been raining on this scouting op so the river crossings were slightly higher.

Join us for "Return to Monache Meadows"
http://landops.wildapricot.org/admin/website/system-pages/?pageId=18008

MESH Networking Class

Chris Doering — Wed, 09 May 2018 05:23:31 GMT

Communications
MESH Networking Class
conducted by Russ Chung KI6MLU at Anaheim RACES

Tonight I attended the Anaheim RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service) where Land Ops member Russ Chung KI6MLU gave a MESH network presentation and demonstration.

Photo from Quartzfest presentation (below): Left Chris Doering KI6QBM and Right Russ Chung KI6MLU.

Tonight's presentation was held during the Anaheim RACES local meeting at the EOC (Emergency Operations Center) in Anaheim, California.

Russ delivered an excellent presentation introducing the basic communication principles of MESH networking as well as details of its practical use during the last B2V (Baker to Vegas) law enforcement relay race.

It was a highly informative session and several attendees have expressed their interest in setting up their own MESH nodes as well as attending upcoming Land Ops.

A great thank you goes to Russ Chung for taking the time and effort to prepare such a thorough overview and demo.

A Friendly Wave

Chris Doering — Tue, 08 May 2018 02:23:17 GMT

4x4 Adventures
JEEP WAVE
from Scott Tokar, N6ZHV

Land Ops is giving you a blog-wave back.
Thank you Scott for leading Alpha Team on this last op!

4x4 Adventures at Cuddeback Dry Lake, California

Chris Doering — Sun, 06 May 2018 19:36:09 GMT

4x4 Adventures
We had an awesome desert nav-comm level 2 op.

From nearby ridgelines to flat dry lake crossings the Cuddeback op this year had some exciting and beautiful drives.

Below: Jim Biram K6JKB in his Land Rover crossing the drylake at high speed. Picture was taken from a perch along the lower ridge of Fremont Peaks mountains. Look for the tiny Rover near the bottom of the pic.

Picture above and below gives some perspective as to the scale of this area.

Photo above was taken from the upper third of the lake looking north.

Below: Great times with Land Ops members - the night quite pleasant with little to no wind.

Perfect weather.

Cuddeback Desert Nav-Comm

Chris Doering — Sun, 06 May 2018 19:24:43 GMT

Report from Cuddeback May 5th Op
Ridgeline Base Camp & Special HF Demo

Instead of staying down on the desert floor we decided to get above it all. This year at Cuddeback we had perfect, I say again, perfect weather for camping up on the ridge south of Fremont Peak and East of Cuddeback dry lake.

We all found our space higher up overlooking the three dry lakes surrounding our camp.

The op attendance was perfectly sized as well. One net control station and about 10 vehicles total on the op. Afterwards we got a demonstration by Peter (new member) KA6U who was using WSJT FT8 digital mode (HF) contacting Indonesia, Russia, Japan and South America.

Peter was using an end fed 40 meter dipole about 20 feet over our heads. We also listened as he made CW contacts at about 30 words per minute.

Mobile HF Base Practice

Chris Doering — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 04:36:45 GMT

Off The Books – HF Project (quick report)

Last Saturday April 21, a few Land Ops HF operators got together for a half day to focus on setting up mobile HF base stations.

Attending at El Dorado Park, Long Beach

Tim and Bonnie Sperry AG6RS
Thank you Bonnie for the surprise lunch

Greg Lund & Candy Kawahara K6GHL & KC6ROX

Michael Rozenstraten KJ6KNH

Chris Doering KI6QBM

We were able to make contact with Rick Bean W8KO on 80 meters so we were definitely pushing NVIS. He was based in Temecula at his home station.

Emmanuel Tsompanas KC6RUF was alerted to our exercise in northern California, but our coordination with him was less than perfect so we didn’t actually get to make contact.

All in all it turned out to be a great morning and afternoon working with wire antennas and our new radios as well as spending time with Land Ops friends.

LUCKY NUGGET T-SHIRTS ARRIVED

Chris Doering — Sun, 22 Apr 2018 19:17:14 GMT

Good news for those who donated to the Kickstarter campaign for our upcoming documentary "Mysteries of Lucky Nugget"...the t-shirts have arrived.

They will soon be distributed to those who participated in the fundraising project at that reward level.

Here's the trailer if you missed it

Land Ops in QST Magazine

Chris Doering — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 03:55:20 GMT

May 2018 Issue of QST
Land Ops ARC is in QST this month!

Thanks to member Jim Biram K6JKB for a nice trip report sent to QST magazine.

QST Article name is: Land Ops - Off Road and On the Air
This was a nice write up (trip report) on our Monache Meadows, California trip last year.

We did a little mesh networking with our own version of a talking stick.
We've gotten better getting everything functional. We had a fully functioning network with VOIP phones during this years Quartzfest. Thanks to Russ Chung KI6MLU.

Here's a little fun video of this particular trip (QST article) to Monache Meadows with some of our challenges with mesh network last year.

Off The Books HF Op

Chris Doering — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 05:04:32 GMT

Saturday April 21 2018
LAND OPS WILL BE ON 80 and 40 METERS
Practice HF Mobile Net Control Station Deployments

We will be practicing setting up multiple net control stations from 8AM to 2PM approx.

Stations on the air will be in northern California and Temecula California.

We will be preparing over the net 6 months for our Dual Base Camp op in Nov. 10th, 2018. Stations will have their own nav-comm teams during the November operation and will be intentionally required to use NVIS (near vertical incident skywave).

Meet n Greet in Irvine Regional Park

Chris Doering — Sun, 15 Apr 2018 00:46:05 GMT

A great turn out for the Meet n Greet at Irvine Regional Park.

The Land Ops vehicle variety.

Visiting park ranger Mason.

Op Near Brown's Camp

Chris Doering — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 14:13:49 GMT

The camping near Brown's Camp in the Turtle Mountains was absolutely beautiful. This area is so unique. The op included navigating to caches around the lost arch area and the use of mesh network between net control and the rendezvous point.

W8KO set up HF communications our of the back of his homemade trailer (below).

Mailbox cache below.

Baker to Vegas Race Support

Chris Doering — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 16:59:33 GMT

This year was a whole lot cooler than usual. Only one medivac helo at our stage 3, but it was one of our ham radio volunteers who was not feeling well. The medical team took no chances and called in the bird.

A few pictures of this operation:

Land Ops New Blog

Jim Biram — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 22:28:26 GMT

Dear Operators,

This is our new blog, and we hope you will check in periodically to see what is new about past trips, upcoming trips, and changes in Land Ops. We had a busy January and February, with a trip to Quartzite Arizona and the Quartzfest, where we gave a presentation to about 70 ham operators on our group, and the next day staged 3 mini-ops for the group. In February, we held our overland trip from Barstow to The Trona Pinnacles, including a great dinner at the Idle Spurs Steakhouse in Barstow.