From the Burr Oak State Park website:

As one of Ohio's resort parks, Burr Oak State Park blends modern convenience with Ohio's wilderness spirit. Miles of forested ridges and hollows can be found here. The park offers a rustic full-service lodge with family suites and a cozy campground with easy access to the lake. A substantial trail system ranges from moderate to difficult with portions intersecting the statewide Buckeye Trail.

From the North Country Trail Association website:

The North Country National Scenic Trail is the longest in the National Trails System, stretching 4,800 miles across eight states from North Dakota to Vermont, traversing forests and farmlands, remote terrain and nearby communities. Whether you’re looking to day-hike a few miles or plan a longer overnight backpacking trip, a multitude of diverse landscapes and hiking opportunities are waiting for you.

From the Bobcat Trail Marathon website:

Prepare to immerse yourself in the rugged beauty of Burr Oak State Park at the Bobcat Trail Marathon & Half Marathon. This event offers a unique opportunity for trail running enthusiasts and hikers to experience the wild and challenging terrain of Ohio wilderness. The marathon’s single-loop course provides a diverse and scenic adventure, featuring rolling hills, several creek crossings, and portions of the Buckeye Trail. The half marathon offers an equally thrilling point-to-point experience on the same trails as the marathon.

This race is all about embracing the untamed beauty of Burr Oak – 90% of the course is pure trail! Whether you’re a seasoned trail runner, a hiker, or new to the trails, all are welcome and encouraged to come and experience the Bobcat adventure at your own pace. The Bobcat Trail Marathon & Half Marathon is your chance to get wild, be challenged, and reconnect with nature on an extraordinary course in one of Ohio’s most pristine state parks.

Description

On Saturday, November 9, 2024, two members of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed successful two-fer activations of Burr Oak State Park (K-1939) and North Country National Scenic Trail (K-4239) in Ohio as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, and Jeff Slattery, N8SUZ, had each volunteered to serve as communicators for the annual Bobcat Trail Marathon and Half-Marathon trail-run. This event is run on trails within Burr Oak State Park, including the Buckeye Trail which is coincident with the North Country National Scenic Trail. Both operators were stationed at locations that were within Burr Oak State Park and within 100' of the North Country National Scenic Trail.

The weather was unseasonably warm and lovely and it was a very nice day for an outdoor public-service communications event and POTA activations.

WD8RIF

Eric was assigned to work at Aid Station 7, which was located at Burr Oak State Park's Dock 3, and was the 21-mile point of the full marathon and the 8-mile point of the half-marathon.

Eric had planned his arrival at Dock 3 to be a full hour prior to to his assigned 9:30am on-station time in order to have time to set up his 2m simplex station for the marathon-support and to have time to set up his HF station and complete a quick POTA activation. However, he failed in this and arrived at his location with essentially just enough to time to set up his 2m station and check into the marathon net.

Eric was the sole operator at his location for the first half of the day, and the half-marathon runners arrived in large groups. Eric was only able to listen to the net and to count the runners as they arrived at the aid station; there was no time to even think about performing a POTA activation.

A few hours into the event, Eric was joined by Marcel, AD8CM, after he had been released from his first assignment. Marcel concentrated on counting the full marathon runners while Eric continued taking a count of all the runners.

Eric had, quite frankly, given up on the idea of performing a POTA activation until, perhaps, after the aid station had closed. However, once the aid station was left waiting for the last three full-marathon runners and the event sweep runner, Eric realized the tempo had slowed enough for him to consider doing an activation. After Marcel agreed he would continue listening to the net and watching for the last runners, Eric quickly deployed his Tufteln (link) 35' end-fed random wire 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 a single 17' counterpoise wire directly on the ground under the radiator. Placing his Elecraft KX2 on his folding camp-chair's flip-up table, Eric was on the air at 1922 UTC.

Eric's KX2 station.


Eric's antenna.

Because Eric expected to not have cell-signal at Dock 3, prior to leaving home he had announced his POTA activation on POTA Spots (link) so that he would, he hoped, be automatically spotted on POTA Spots when he began his CW operation. (Eric's expection was correct—he did not have cell signal at Dock 3.)

Eric began his operation on 20m by finding a clear frequency to run and calling "CQ POTA", hoping to be auto-spotted on POTA Spots. He must have been auto-spotted and his first QSO came at 1924 UTC with WI5D in Missouri. Even though he was forced to change frequency slightly due to another station he couldn't hear running the same frequency, QSOs came steadily, with Eric's twelfth QSO coming at 1945 UTC with WD4CFN in Tennessee. This run included QSOs with operators located in Missouri (2), Maine, Massachusetts, Georgia, Tennessee (2), Ohio, New Hampshire, Florida (2), and Illinois.

Eric realized during his operation that he had made a fundamental mistake in setting up his station. Forgetting that aid station tear down would commence as soon as the final runners had passed, Eric had deployed his antenna directly where tear-down foot traffic would be. As he finished his activation, Eric was forced to watch the aid station workers and remind them of the antenna and, in several cases, actually lift his wire to allow workers to pass underneath it. Had he been thinking ahead, he would have located his station elsewehere, well away from the aid station foot traffic.

In all, Eric logged twelve QSOs in twenty-three minutes of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at five watts output.

For his part in the communications support of the Bobcat Trail Marathon, Eric used his 31' Jackite telescoping pole and drive-on base to support a roll-up J-pole antenna, and he deployed his IC-2100H Shack-in-a-box on a telescoping camp stool near the aid station.

Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program for an operation at Burr Oak State Park, KFF-1939.

N8SUZ

Jeff Slattery, N8SUZ, supported the Bobcat Trail Marathon at the Burr Oak State Park Nature Center parking lot and he operated inside his van. Because Jeff was net-control for the busy event, he didn't have time to deploy an HF antenna or hunt on HF for P2P QSOs during lull periods of the net. However, since the marathon net was run on a 2m simplex frequency, and since there were more than ten operators involved in the net, he was able to validate his activation solely using QSOs made on 2m simplex.

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