by William Eric McFadden
Support-Your-Parks Summer 2021 RATpedition, Day 2; park three of eleven
From the park's website:
-
Located in the Appalachian foothills near the Scioto River, the cultural history of the region dates back to the early moundbuilders. The rugged region surrounding Lake White State Park offers all the ingredients for a great day outside. Water sports enthusiasts will enjoy boating, paddling and fishing. For those who prefer land, the park offers scenic picnic areas.
Pictures
Description
For the Parks on the Air program (POTA; link) Support Your Parks Summer 2021 Plaque Event
on the weekend of July 17-18, 2021, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team
performed an aggressive two-day activation schedule with an overnight stop in Portsmouth, Ohio. The route of Eric McFadden, WD8RIF,
would cover over 300 miles, would include fifteen stops in two states, and would lead to twenty-one successful POTA activations with
421 QSOs made. Over the weekend, Eric would encounter rain, thunderstorms, and brilliant sunshine.
Following a successful two-fer activation of Shawnee State Park (K-1991) and Shawnee State Forest (K-5450) (link), Eric's second stop of the day was Lake White State Park (K-1971).
Eric arrived at Lake White State Park at 1430 UTC and was pleased to find that the hillside picnic shelter area was unoccupied.
After selecting a parking place, Eric quickly deployed his 28½' wire vertical on his Jackite 31'
telescoping fiberglass mast and drive-on mount. Because of his aggressive schedule, Eric set up his KX3 inside his car. Eric was
on the air at 1443 UTC.
The cell-signal at this location allowed Eric to use the POTA Spots website (link) to spot himself and to look for possible park-to-park (P2P) QSOs.
Eric began operations by selecting a frequency on 40m to run and by 1507 UTC he had made nineteen QSOs. This nice run
included a P2P QSO with K3SEW who was activating Bald Eagle State Park (K-1329) in Pennsylvania and a P2P QSO with NJ0Q
who was activating Huntington Beach State Park (K-2900) in North Carolina.
After checking POTA Spots, Eric made a final P2P QSO on 40m with N3KAE who was activating Pinchot State Forest (K-5473) in Pennsylvania.
Because his aggressive itinerary didn't allow for much time at any of the parks, Eric tore down his station in order to proceed to his next location.
In all, Eric made twenty QSOs, including three P2P QSOs. 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)