Description
On Sunday, October 22, 2023, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Cedar Lakes State Recreation Area in West Virginia as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.
After being alerted the day before by his friend Thomas Witherspoon, K4SWL, that new units had been added to the POTA program, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, made his first visit to Cedar Lakes State Recreation Area, K-9915, during the POTA Support Your Parks Weekend — Autumn event. Eric was accompanied by his wife, Vickie, the two dogs, Theo and Ginny. This was to be the first CW POTA activation of Cedar Lakes State Recreation Area.
While enroute to Cedar Lakes State Recreation Area, Eric, Vickie, and the dogs stopped for a picnic lunch at the Washington's Riverside Park in Ravenswood, West Virginia.
The 1918 Lock 22 powerhouse (lockhouse) at
Washington's Riverside Park in Ravenswood.
Looking up-river along the Ohio River
at Washington's Riverside Park.
Eric, Vickie, and the dogs arrived at Cedar Lakes State Recreation Area about 1730 UTC. Eric found an out-of-the-way place to park at one end of the Staats Mill Covered Bridge parking lot and, after walking the dogs, deployed his 28½' wire vertical on his Jackite 31' telescoping fiberglass pole supported on a drive-on base. Setting up his Elecraft KX3 on his folding camp-chair beneath the mast, Eric was on the air at 1754 UTC.
The 1887 Staats Mill Covered Bridge.
Eric's antenna.
Eric's KX3 station.
Eric was pleased to find he had good cell signal and would be able use POTA Spots (link) to spot himself and to identify possible park-to-park (P2P) QSO opportunities.
Eric had planned to begin his operation on 20m but S6-level atmospheric noise on that band quickly made him reconsider and he chose to start on 40m, instead. Immediately upon tuning his radio to 40m, Eric heard W4CMG calling CQ for his activation of May Prairie State Natural Area (K-6255) in Tennessee; Eric completed a P2P QSO at 1755 UTC—a very good start to his activation.
Finding himself a frequency to run on 40m, Eric began calling "CQ POTA" and was pleased to be quickly auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run came at 1759 UTC with KD5TXX in Kentucky. QSOs came quickly, with the twelfth QSO in the run coming at 1811 UTC with AE9R in Indiana. This run include a P2P QSO with K3ES at Allegheny National Forest (K-0619) in Pennsylvania and QSOs with operators located in Kentucky, Pennsylvania (2), North Carolina (2), New York (2), Virginia, Ohio, Alabama, and Indiana (2).
Switching to 30m, Eric found himself a frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and was again quickly auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO on 30m came at 1815 UTC with his good friend K4SWL in North Carolina. As on 40m, QSOs on 30m came quickly, with Eric's thirteenth QSO in this run coming at 1827 UTC with K2UPD in Kentucky. This run included a P2P QSO with KO4NLL at Doerun Pitcherplant Bog Wildlife Management Area (K-7882) in Georgia and QSOs with operators located in North Carolina (5), Wisconsin, Alabama, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Georgia (2), Virginia, and Kentucky.
Eric finished his operation by consulting POTA Spots for P2P QSO opportunities and at 1830 UTC he completed a P2P QSO with K2EAG who was performing a two-fer activation of Finger Lakes National Forest (K-4518) and Erie Canalway Heritage Corridor National Park Reserve (K-6532) in New York.
In all, Eric logged twenty-eight QSOs with five P2P QSOs. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with five watts output.
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