Amateur Radio Station WD8RIF | POTA Activation General Butler State Park

On Friday, November 29, 2024, two members of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of General Butler State Park (US-1279) in Kentucky as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

While enroute to Versailles, Kentucky, for the annual family Thanksgiving get-together, and following a two-fer activation of Big Bone Lick State Historic Site (US-3779) and Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail (US-4572) (link) Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, and Miles McFadden, KD8KNC, stopped at General Butler State Park for the activation. They were accompanied by Vickie McFadden, KC8MAJ, and the two small dogs Ginny and Theo.

The group arrived at General Butler State Park and did a quick reconnoitre of the park before Eric decided to set up his station at the stone picnic shelter and Civilian Conservation Corps Memorial. Eric would have liked to operate within the lovely stone picnic shelter but, with a temperature just above freezing and winds gusting over 20mph, he decided the better option was to operate inside the car.

Eric and Miles quickly deployed a 28½' end-fed wire as a vertical supported on a Jackite 31' telescoping fiberglass mast on a drive-on base, and placed three 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Mounting his Elecraft KX2 on the car's dash, Eric was on the air at 2118 UTC.

Eric's mast and antenna; photo by Miles McFadden.

Eric's KX2 station inside the car.

As he had hoped, Eric had cell-signal at this location and would be able to access POTA Spots to spot himself, if necessary, and to find Park-to-Park (P2P) QSO opportunities.

Eric began his operation on 20m. Finding himself a clear frequency to run, he began calling "CQ POTA", and was quickly auto-spotted on POTA Spots. Eric's first QSO came at 2121 UTC with VE3GMZ in Ontario. QSOs came quickly, with Eric's thirteenth QSO coming at 2136 UTC with K7ZAD in Utah. This run included QSOs with operators located in Ontario, Alaska, Louisiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin (2), Oklahoma, New Jersey, Idaho, Missouri, Massachusetts, Texas, and Utah.

Switching to 40m, Eric found himself a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and was again auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run came at 2140 UTC with NG8N in Ohio. As had been the case on 20m, QSOs came quickly on 40m, with Eric's tenth QSO in this run coming at 2151 UTC with AF8E who was performing a two-fer activation of Hocking State Forest (US-5442) and North Country Trail National Scenic Trail (US-4239) in Ohio. This run included the aforementioned P2P QSO and QSOs with operators located in Ohio (2), Illinois (2), Missouri, Michigan, Kentucky, Ontario (2), and Delaware.

In all, Eric made twenty-three QSOs, including one two-fer P2P QSO, in just over thirty minutes of on-air time.

Miles did not operate but helped with station set-up and tear-down, and did some of the activation photography.

Following station tear-down, the group made a short visit of Butler Lodge, which was nicely decorated inside for Christmas.

Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program for an operation at General Butler State Park, KFF-1279.