by William Eric McFadden
From the wildlife area's website:
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Kinnikinnick Wildlife Area is mostly forested land with access to the Scioto River and is located in Ross County, 6 miles north of the city of Chillicothe on the west side of U.S. Route 23.
Populations of whitetail deer, gray squirrel, waterfowl, and cottontail rabbit exist on the wildlife area. Bald eagles and many migratory bird species also inhabit the area.
Pictures
Description
On Sunday, November 14, 2021, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team
performed a successful activation of Kinnikinnik Wildlife Area in Ohio as part of the Parks on the
Air (POTA; link) program.
Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, visited Kinnikinnik Wildlife Area on a winter-like late Fall day with a temperature not far above freezing and snow, rain, and blustery winds. This was the first CW POTA activation of Kinnikinnik Wildlife Area.
Eric arrived at Kinnikinnik Wildlife Area at 1725 UTC to find the parking area to be unoccupied. Eric quickly deployed his 28½' wire antenna on the 31' Jackite telescoping fiberglass mast and drive-on base. Because of the weather, Eric set up the KX3 inside the car and was on the air at 1735 UTC.
Eric was pleased to find he had very good cell-signal so that he would be able to spot himself on POTA Spots (link) and to look for park-to-park (P2P) QSO opportunities using POTA Spots.
Eric began operations on 80m and his first QSO came at 1737 UTC with WT8WV in West Virginia.
Pausing to check for P2P opportunities, at 1742 UTC Eric made a P2P QSO on 40m with AB9CA who was performing an activation of Leroy Percy State Park (K-2546) in Mississippi.
After finding his own frequency on 40m, Eric began calling "CQ POTA" and at 1746 UTC made a QSO with N3RN in Pennsylvania. QSOs on 40m came at a brisk pace, with the twenty-first QSO in this run coming at 1804 UTC with W9KM in Illinois.
Again checking POTA Spots for P2P opportunities, at 1806 UTC Eric made a P2P QSO on 40m with KB4QQJ who was performing an activation of Haw River at Iron Ore Access Belt State Park (K-3843) in North Carolina. At 1813 UTC, Eric made a P2P QSO on 20m with NG5E who was performing an activation of Washita County Wildlife Management Area (K-8661) in Oklahoma. Finally, at 1815 UTC, Eric made a P2P QSO with K7MTD who was performing an activation of Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge (K-0402) in Montana.
In all, Eric made twenty-six QSOs in about forty minutes. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with five watts output.
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