by William Eric McFadden
Support-Your-Parks Summer 2020 RATpedition, Day 2
From the forest's website:
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The Zaleski State Forest is the second largest forest in Ohio's system of state forests.
Pictures
Description
On Sunday, July 19, 2020, on the second day of the Support Your Parks Summer 2020 Event, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team
performed activations of three POTA units in southeastern Ohio. Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, performed activations of
Lake Hope State Park (K-1968), Zaleski State Forest (K-5455), and Lake Alma State Park (K-1967) as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link)
program.
The second stop was Zaleski State Forest, K-1968, at Lookout Rock.
Eric arrived at Lookout Rock in Zaleski State Forest at about 1545 UTC, pleased to find no one else already at the place. Eric parked in the pull-off and deployed his 28½' wire vertical on his Jackite 31' telescoping fiberglass mast and drive-on mount. To help ensure proper social distancing during the continuing coronavirus pandemic, he set up his KX3 inside his car and was on the air by 1603 UTC.
Eric was surprised to find he had good cell-phone signal, enough to be able to self-spot himself on POTA Spots
to view spots on the website.
Eric began operations on 80m but no QSOs were made on that band.
Changing to 40m, Eric's first QSO there came at 1616 UTC with AE4WX in North Carolina. QSOs on 40m came steadily, with Eric's fourteenth QSO coming at 1641 UTC with N3XLS in Pennsylvania. This run of QSOs included a park-to-park (P2P) QSO with W4JL who was activating South Mountains State Game Land (K-6952) in North Carolina.
Changing to 20m, Eric's first QSO there came at 1651 UTC with AA5VE in Texas. Eric's second and final QSO on 20m came at 1652 UTC with VE4RBN.
Changing to 30m, Eric's first QSO there came at 1700 UTC with NC4H. QSOs came quickly, with Eric's ninth QSO on 30m coming at 1714 UTC with N3XLS in Pennsylvania.
Because of the need to travel to the next park, Eric ceased operations at 1716 UTC.
In all, Eric made twenty-five QSOs including one P2P QSO. 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)