by William Eric McFadden
From the park's website:
-
Located in southeast Ohio, quiet and remote Burr Oak State Park has a rustic country charm in its 2,593-acre scenery of wooded hills and valley farms. As one of Ohio's resort parks, Burr Oak offers a wide array of overnight accommodations with its lodge, cabins and campground. Burr Oak blends modern conveniences with the wilderness spirit of Ohio.
Pictures
Description
On Sunday, June 14, 2020, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team
performed a successful activation of Burr Oak State Park in Ohio as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link)
program.
On an unseasonably cool day that threatened rain, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, performed the activation under the Burr Oak State Park water tower while maintaining proper social distancing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Eric was accompanied by his wife Vickie and their two small dogs, Theo and Mindy.
Eric, Vickie, and the dogs arrived at Burr Oak State Park and first checked the Horseman's Area, but found it to be occupied not by horses or horse-trailers but by camping-tents. Continuing on, they arrived at the water tower at about 1645 UTC. Because of the risk of sunburn and the forecast for rain later, Eric decided to set up his station inside the car. Eric deployed his 28½' wire vertical on his Jackite 31' telescoping fiberglass mast which he supported on his drive-on mount. Eric set up his KX3 inside the car and was on the air at 1700 UTC.
After checking the POTA Spots website and not finding any CW activations to try to work, Eric began operations on 80m. He made only one QSO on 80m, at 1705 UTC, with his good friend K8RAT.
Switching to 40m, Eric's first QSO there was a short rag-chew that came at 1708 UTC with N3AO in Virginia. Eric's second QSO on 40m was a Park-to-Park (P2P) QSO with K0BWR who was performing an activation of Perry State Park (K-2347) in Kansas. Next came a second QSO with K8RAT, at 1717 UTC. QSOs on 40m came quickly, with Eric's thirteenth QSO on 40m coming at 1731 UTC with K3MRK in Pennsylvania. Eric switched to 20m at 1733 UTC.
On 20m, Eric's first QSO came at 1735 UTC with N5AAS. QSOs on 20m too quickly for Eric to keep up with logging, with his thirteenth QSO on 20m coming at 1747 UTC with AA1SB in New Hampshire. This run of QSOs included a second QSO with K0BWR who was still at Perry State Park. Eric switched to 30m at 1748 UTC.
Eric's first QSO on 30m came at 1754 UTC and was a third QSO with K0BWR who was still at Perry State Park. QSOs came quickly on 30m with Eric's ninth QSO on 30m coming at 1803 UTC with K4JSK in North Carolina.
Wanting to tear down before the rain hit, Eric finished up his operation at 1804 UTC.
In all, Eric made thirty-six QSOs. Propagation was good: Eric made three P2P QSOs with K0BWR (40, 20, 30m), three QSOs with K8RAT (80, 40, 30m), three QSOs with NG5E (40, 20, 30m), three QSOs with K4DQP (40, 20, 30m), two QSOs with WB8CPG (40, 30m), and two QSOs with VE3LDT (20, 30m). All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at the 5-watt level.
Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program.
(return)