Amateur Radio Station WD8RIF | POTA Activation Strouds Run State Park + ARS Flight of the Bumblebees

On Sunday, July 31, 2022, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Strouds Run State Park (K-1994) as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program while also participating in the Adventure Radio Society's Flight of the Bumblebees (FoBB) field operating event as Bumblebee #11.

Within the event, "Bumblebees" are encouraged to use human-power to get to their operating locations. After considering various bicycle-accessible locations within Strouds Run State Park, Lake Hope State Park, and Zaleski State Forest, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, decided to perform a bicycle-portable activation of Strouds Run State Park at the park's Bulldog Shelter, choosing this location because of the available covered picnic shelter, cell-signal, and toilet.

This was to be the first time that Eric bicycled with his newly-built KX3 Mini Travel Kit, a complete KX3 CW station in a LowePro Nova 1 bag. This was also to be the first time that Eric had ridden with his carbon-fiber mast strapped to his bicycle's top-tube instead of sticking awkwardly out of his bicycle's rear pannier.

When Eric had checked the weather forecast on Saturday evening, the forecast for Sunday called for a 30% chance of rain. On Sunday morning, however, the forecast called for a 90% chance of rain until 1pm—and rain it did, all morning, until just about 1pm, the start-time of the four-hour FoBB event. Not relishing the idea of bicycling in the rain, Eric delayed the start of his ride until after the rain had stopped. Because the ride from home to the Bulldog Shelder would take Eric almost an hour to complete, waiting for the rain to stop meant he had lost at least an hour of operating time in the four-hour FoBB event.

Eric arrived at the Bulldog Shelter within Strouds Run State Park at about 1800 UTC—a full hour after the start of FoBB—and was happy to find that the picnic shelter was unoccupied. Eric took some photos and then set up his station as quickly as he could, strapping his Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast securely between his bicycle's second water-bottle cage and his bicycle's top-tube and deploying his 28½' end-fed wire antenna as a sloper between the top of the mast and his Elecraft KX3 set up on a picnic table within the picnic shelter. Eric was on the air at about 1820 UTC.

As expected, Eric found he had good cell-signal at this location and would be able to spot himself on the POTA Spots website and to use POTA Spots to identify possible Park-to-Park (P2P) QSOs. However, he decided to concentrate first in making FoBB QSOs and resort to POTA Spots only if he had trouble making the ten QSOs to validate the activation of Strouds Run State Park.

Fully expecting 40m to be useless due to the ongoing solar storm, Eric began operations on 20m by hunting for FoBB "Bumblebees". The 20m band was generous, and Eric managed to work six Bumblebees on 20m within eighteen minutes.

Finding his own frequency to run on 20m, Eric began calling "CQ BB" and his first and only QSO in this run came at 1848 UTC with W2GIW in New Jersey, who was not participating in FoBB, and was running 100 watts.

20m
Station	Time (UTC)	SPC	BB # / PWR
NX1K	1824	WI	52
NQ9RP	1828	WI	26
N0SS	1833	MO	38
WO9B	1836	WI	34
AA7LNW	1838	UT	79
N5GW	1842	MS	53
W2GIW	1848	NJ	100w

After several minutes of fruitless calling, Eric spotted himself to POTA Spots, but this failed to produce any additional QSOs on 20m.

Switching to 40m at 1901 UTC to hunt FoBB and POTA stations, Eric immediately completed a P2P QSO with KN3A who was performing a POTA activation of Samuel S Lewis State Park (K-1418) in Pennsylvania. At 1905 UTC Eric completed a P2P QSO with K3RTA who was performing a POTA activation of White Clay Creek National Wild and Scenic River (K-0898) in Delaware. At 1910 UTC, Eric completed a P2P QSO with K2EAG who was performing a POTA two-fer activation of Sampson State Park (K-2133) and Erie Canalway Heritage Corridor National Park Reserve (K-6532) in New York. Finally, Eric completed a P2P QSO with K3UQ who was performing a POTA two-fer activation of Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park (K-0015) and Potomac Heritage Trail National Scenic Trail (K-4564).

40m
Station	Time (UTC)	SPC	BB # / PWR
KN3A	1901	PA	—	K-1418
K3RTA	1905	DE	—	K-0898
K2EAG	1910	NY	—	K-2133 + K-6532
K3UQ	1915	—	—	K-0015 + K-4564

Finding his own frequency to run on 40m, Eric updated his spot on POTA Spots and began calling CQ. Eric's first QSO in this run came at 1920 UTC with W2BXR in Pennsylvania. The 40m band turned out to be surprisingly good and QSOs came very quickly, with Eric's seventh QSO in this run coming at 1926 UTC with AC3IU in Pennsylvania. This run included QSOs with POTA hunters located in Pennsylvania (2), Virginia (3), New Jersey, and Wisconsin.

40m
Station	Time (UTC)	SPC	BB # / PWR
W2BXR	1920	PA	—
K4DJG	1922	VA	—
K2KS	1923	NJ	—
K9IS	1924	WI	—
K3VAT	1924	VA	—
KT4UE	1925	VA	—
AC3IU	1926	PA	—

Because he was looking at almost an hour of bicycle ride to get home, Eric chose to finish his operation at this point, happy to have completed seven FoBB QSOs on 20m and eleven POTA QSOs on 40m.

In all, Eric made eighteen FoBB-eligible QSOs in just about an hour of operating time. (And, because the two P2P two-fer QSOs each count as two QSOs, these eighteen QSOs count as twenty QSOs within POTA.) All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at five watts output.

With the eighteen QSOs and six Bumblebees as multipliers, Eric's calculated score is 324 points.

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.

Eric was pleased to find that his new KX3 Mini Travel Kit traveled well on the bicycle, even on the steep hills. Eric was also pleased to find that the Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast traveled well on his bicycle's top-tube, particularly if the thinner end is pointing toward the back of the bicycle. The only problem found with the rest of the KX3 Mini Travel Kit is that the CW paddle picks up some RF during transmit when the 28½' wire and three 17' counterpoise wires are fed through the 4:1 balun. (Would a 4:1 unun work better than a balun in this situation? Eric thinks so and will do some experimentation.)

Round-trip, Eric bicycled 18 miles, climbing 1,484 feet, on his ride from his home to the Bulldog Shelter and back to his home. View the map of the ride: