Amateur Radio Station WD8RIF | POTA Activation Shot Tower State Park + New River Trail State Park, VA

On Sunday, May 11, 2025, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed successful simultaneous activations of Shot Tower State Park and New River Trail State Park in Virginia as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

While on the second day of the drive home to Ohio from coastal North Carolina, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, stopped at Shot Tower State Park so that he could perform the two-fer POTA activation. Eric was accompanied by his wife Vickie and their two dogs, Theo and Ginny.

The two humans and the two canines arrived at Shot Tower State Park at about 1545 UTC.

After paying the $7 parking fee, Eric did a bit of a reconnoitre and identified a picnic table and a bench that appeared to be well within 100' of the New River Trail that runs between the shot tower and the New River. Eric chose to operate on the bench and deployed his Tufteln (link) 35' end-fed random wire (EFRW) antenna as a sloper up to the top of his Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast held upright on a spike, placing three 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Placing his Elecraft KX2 on the bench, Eric was on the air at 1614 UTC.

As he had expected he would, given the very close proximity to I-77, Eric found he had good cell-signal and would be able to spot himself on POTA Spots (link) and to use POTA Spots to identify possible park-to-park (P2P) QSO opportunities.

With improving solar numbers (SFI=134, SN=77, A-Index=12, K-Index=3), Eric hoped he would have no trouble making the ten QSOs required to validate the activation but, given the trouble he had had at other activations in West Virginia and North Carolina during the previous week, he wasn't sure what he would find.

Eric began his operation on 20m and was startled by the extremely low noise floor on the band. Finding himself a clear frequency to run, he began calling "CQ POTA", and was auto-spotted on POTA Spots. He immediately noticed that, although the RF noise floor was almost non-existent, the noise generated by truck traffic (and Jake-brakes!) on the nearby I-77 was very, very loud. He was to find as the activation progressed that this "audio QRM" would make copy of even the stronger stations difficult. After several minutes of calling, Eric's first QSO came at 1622 UTC with K5OGR in Arkansas. This was followed at 1623 UTC by a QSO with AC9OT who was activating Meadow Valley State Wildlife Area (US-4311) in Wisconsin.

Pausing to check POTA Spots for P2P QSO opportunities, at 1629 UTC Eric made a P2P QSO on 20m with W4LOO who was activating Fort Pierce Inlet State Park (US-1872) in Florida.

Returning to running a frequency on 20m, Eric made one more QSO, at 1634 UTC, with K2TBT in Florida.

At 1645 UTC, Eric switched to 40m. As had been the case on 20m, the noise floor was very low, except on 40m, some thunderstorm crashes could be heard. Finding himself a clear frequency to run, he began calling "CQ POTA" and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 1647 UTC with AG2O in New York. Unlike on 20m, QSOs came steadily, with Eric's seventh QSO in this run coming at 1700 UTC with W3PD in New York. This run included a P2P QSO with K4OOW who was activating Carolina Beach State Park (US-2722) in North Carolina and QSOs with operators located in New Jersey, New York (3), Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia.

At 1704 UTC, Eric switched to 30m and, as had been the case on the other bands, the noise floor was almost non-existent. Like on 40m, however, some thunderstorm crashes could be heard. Eric found a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. He made one QSO on 30m, at 1708 UTC, with W8APS who was activating Lakeport State Park (US-1514) in Michigan.

Eric finished his activation with a final hunt for P2P QSOs. At 1712 UTC, he made a P2P QSO on 20m with WB2RLJ who was activating—for the 897th time!—Chalco Hills State Recreation Area (US-4011) in Nebraska.

In all, Eric made thirteen QSOs in just about an hour of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with five watts output.

Eric was very pleased that this activation hadn't been as difficult to complete as some had been during the previous week. Even with the very low noise floor on the bands, however, the very deep signal fading he had noted on all three bands indicated propagation was still very unsettled.

After Eric finished his activation and tore down his station, he followed the trail down the hill behind the shot tower to the New River Trail.

Looking down from the base of
the shot tower to New River Trail.

The New River Trail, looking toward Foster Falls...

... and looking toward Austinville.

Upon leaving Shot Tower State Park, Eric detoured a short distance to the New River Trail State Park access at Foster Falls. It turns out that the "falls" are really just a series of rapids, but the view across the New River, and the sound of the rushing water was mesmerizing.

The New River Trail runs along the North Carolina Branch (later called the Cripple Creek Branch) of the Norfolk & Western Railroad, and Foster Falls still has the original 1887 depot that featured an agent-operator's office, a freight holding area, and segragated waiting areas. Also on display is an N&W steel center-cupula caboose.

The 1887 N&W depot at Foster Falls.

N&W steel center-cupula caboose #518517 at Foster Falls.

Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program for Shot Tower State Park, KFF-1317.