Amateur Radio Station WD8RIF | POTA Activation Big Foot Beach State Park

On Thursday, March 13, 2025, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Big Foot Beach State Park (US-1440) in Wisconsin as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

Following a two-day work conference in Chicago, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, performed an activation of Big Foot Beach State Park at the parking area near the park gatehouse. Eric was accompanied by his wife, Vickie, and also met up with Don Lawson, WB9CYY, at the park.

Don, who lives in the Milwaukee area, had suggested via email the get-together; although Don is a busy POTA activator, he had not yet performed an activation of Big Foot Beach State Park. The plan was that Don would arrive at the park first, scout out an operating location, set up his station, and perform his activation prior to Eric's arrival. Don would leave his dual-band fan-dipole in the air for Eric to use.

Don's hot-rodded Heathkit HW-8. (See Eric's
HW-8 page for details on Don's upgrades.)

Don's two-band, self-guying, fan-dipole configured for 15 and 20m.
The antenna elements are constructed of twisted-pair wire, the
antenna is supported on a telescoping painter's pole, and the
guys are held in place with sand-filled plastic bottles.

Eric and Vickie arrived at Big Foot Beach at about 1630 UTC and easily found Don at a picnic table near the park's gatehouse. After greetings all around, Don explained that band conditions were unstable and that it had taken him quite a while to get his first ten QSOs for a valid activation. Eric checked the solar numbers (SFI=160, SN=160, A-Index=32, and K-Index=5) and expected his own operation to take a while. Because of the unstable conditions, Eric declined the offer to use Don's HW-8, choosing instead to use his own Elecraft KX2.

Eric set up his Elecraft KX2 on the picnic table and connected Don's 15/20m fan dipole to it, figuring that a resonant dipole would probably work better than his usual end-fed random wire antenna would. He also spent a few minutes experimenting with Don's electronic "bug simulator" but found his bug-fist to be too rusty and decided to operate using his KX2's internal keyer. (Don gave Eric a prototype bug simulator to take with him; Eric plans to practice using it.)

As expected, given that Don had been texting him from the park, 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.

Eric began his operation on 20m. Finding himself a clear frequency to run, Eric began calling "CQ POTA" and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 1641 UTC with KC2THY in New Jersey. Don's fan dipole really worked well and QSOs came much more quickly than Eric had anticipated, with his twelfth QSO coming at 1654 UTC with N4DPM in Florida. This run included QSOs with operators located in Alabama (2), California, Florida, Maryland (2), New Jersey (2), New Mexico, Texas (2), and Virginia.

Switching to 15m, Eric began calling "CQ POTA" and his first QSO in this run came at 1701 UTC with W0MM in Texas. For giggles, Don hooked a dummy load to his own rig and at 1707 UTC he and Eric made a P2P QSO on 15m.

Eric finished his operation by hunting for P2P QSOs. At 1712 UTC, he made a P2P QSO on 20m with KF0QS who was activating Two Ponds National Wildlife Refuge (US-0227) in Colorado. Finally, at 1717 UTC he made a P2P QSO on 15m with WI2X who was activating Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge (US-0252) in Florida.

In all, Eric made sixteen QSOs in about thirty minutes of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with five watts output.

Eric was pleased to finally be able to meet Don in person for the first time and he enjoyed being able to use Don's antenna. (Had conditions been better, Eric might have used Don's hot-rod HW-8 for his operation.)

After their get-together at Big Foot Beach State Park, Eric and Don each went their own way. Eric was to go to Richard Bong State Recreation Area (US-4265) for a POTA activation, and Don was to go to Turtle Creek Wildlife Area (US-9868) for a POTA activation.

Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program.