Amateur Radio Station WD8RIF | POTA Activation Strouds Run State Park

On Sunday, November 24, 2024, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Strouds Run State Park (US-1994) as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

Despite cool Fall temperaturs, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, bicycled to Strouds Run State Park's Bulldog Shelter to perform a bicycle-portable activation.

Wishing to avoid two significant climbs, Eric chose to start his ride at his workplace parking lot instead of at home. He began his ride at 1801 UTC, when the temperature was 51°F, and arrived at Bulldog Shelter at 1831 UTC, finding the picnic shelter to be entirely unoccupied.

Eric's had carried with him on the bicycle his KH1 Micro Travel Kit, a Whiterook MK-33 single-lever paddle and cable, clipboards, and his Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast. Eric deployed the kit's ad hoc 35' EFRW antenna as a sloper, supported at the far end on his Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 bungied vertically to his bicycle. Eric placed his KH1 on a picnic table, and placed the 13' counterpoise wire directly on the ground. Connecting earbuds and the MK-33 paddle, Eric was on the air at 1842 UTC.

Eric's KH1 station; the tin can with the white plastic lid
is used to safely transport the CW paddle and cable.

Eric's antenna.

As he had expected, Eric had cell-signal and he would be able to access POTA Spots to spot himself and to find Park-to-Park (P2P) QSO opportunities.

Eric began his operation on 20m. It being CQ World Wide CW Contest (info) weekend, Eric tuned way, way up in the band to find himself a frequency to run clear of contest activity, began calling "CQ POTA", and was pleased to be quickly auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 1844 UTC with NR1Z in South Carolina. QSOs came surprisingly quickly, with his twelfth QSO coming at 1901 UTC with VA3YKT in Ontario. This run included QSOs with operators located in South Carolina, Texas, Florida, New York (3), Indiana, Missouri, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, and Ontario. During this run, Eric was pleased—and just a little bit surprised—that he hadn't been chased off the frequency by CQ World Wide Contest activity.

Switching to 30m, a quiet band with no contest activity, Eric easily found 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 1908 UTC with K9TBD in Pennsylvania. QSOs came quickly, with the fifth QSO in this run coming at 1912 UTC with K2ZA who was mobile in New Jersey. This run included a QSO with Eric's good friend K8RAT in north-central Ohio, and QSOs with operators located in Pennsylvania (2), Illinois, Ohio, and New Jersey.

It being CQ World Wide CW weekend, Eric thought he would finish his activation by working some DX stations participating in the contest. Starting at the bottom of the very, very busy 20m band, Eric was disappointed to discover that, while the KH1 is an excellent portable transceiver, it appears to be not very good for contesting on very crowded bands—even with the CW bandwidth set to the lowest setting of 300Hz, the receiver's bandwidth was just too wide to allow easy copy of stations on the crowded band, and Eric gave up without working even a single DX station. (He is, very probably, spoiled by the 50Hz brick-wall filters available in his Elecraft KX2 and KX3.) Eric realized after he got home that he should have given 15m a try, since that band should have been significantly less crowded than 20m was.

In all, Eric made seventeen QSOs in just under a half-hour of on-air time.

After the operation, Eric took some more photos, loaded his bicycle, and began the ride back to his car.

Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program for an operation at Strouds Run State Park, KFF-1994.