Amateur Radio Station WD8RIF | POTA Activation Zaleski State Forest

On Saturday, April 6, 2024, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Zaleski State Forest (US-5455) as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

While at his assigned location for communications support of the Iron Furnace Trail Run half-marathon, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, attempted to perform a quick POTA activation of Zaleski State Forest before the first runners were to arrive at the aid station. Eric succeeded in completing his activation, but not quickly enough to validate it before the arrival of the first runner.

Eric arrived at his assigned aid station on Kings Hollow Road within Zaleski State Forest to find the aid station crew already on-site and setting up the aid station. Eric introduced himself and quickly set up his 2m station for support of the event. His 2m station consisted of go-box containing an ICOM IC-2200H mobile transceiver and a 30Ah Bioenno LiFePO4 battery and a Jetstream 2m ½λ mobile whip atop five sections of military mast.

Eric signed into the net and took relevant notes about the event. Then, based on his experience working the same aid station during many previous runnings of the Iron Furnace Trail Run, he felt confident he had more than enough time to set up his HF station and perform a quick POTA activation (while still keeping one ear on the event's 2m net) before the arrival of the first runner to the aid station.

Eric set up his Elecraft KX2 on his folding camp-chair and 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. Eric was on the air at 1337 UTC.

As expected, Eric had absolustely no cell-signal and he would be unable to spot himself on the POTA Spots website (link) or to use POTA Spots to identify possible Park-to-Park (P2P) QSOs. Having expected this, prior to departing his home Eric had announced his activation on POTA Spots so that he might be auto-spotted via the Reverse Beacon Network (link).

Immediately upon turning on his his KX2 Eric heard a POTA activator calling CQ on 20m. Eric called this operator but wasn't heard. Needing to get his ten QSOs before the first runner arrived, Eric decided to forsake the possible P2P QSO and find his own frequency to run. Finding a clear frequency, Eric began calling "CQ POTA" in the hopes of being auto-spotted, but either 20m conditions were very poor or the POTA auto-spot system just wasn't working, because QSOs came very slowly. His first QSO came at 1341 UTC with KF0AER in Colorado, his second came at 1347 UTC with KD8IE vacationing in Florida, his third came at 1352 UTC and was a P2P QSO with WD5GRW at Cooper Lake State Park (US-3000) in Texas, and his fourth came at 1353 UTC with W5AZO in Texas. Sometime during this distressingly slow run, the lead runner arrived at a pace that would, by the finish of the event, set a new record for this half-marathon course.

With only four QSOs logged in nearly twenty minutes, and hoping still to validate this activation quickly, Eric changed to 40m, found a clear frequency to run, and began calling "CQ POTA" at 1400 UTC. His first QSO in this run came at 1403 UTC with W4SK in Tennessee. QSOs came more quickly on 40m than they had on 20m, and Eric's eighth QSO in this run came at 1419 UTC with K3ES in Pennsylvania. This run included a P2P QSO with W5VS at George Washington & Jefferson National Forest (US-4526) in West Virginia, and QSOs with operators located in Tennessee (2), Indiana, Delaware, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. During this run, Eric had to pause in order to capture the bib-numbers of the first female runner—who was also running at a pace that would set a course record—and the second, third, and fourth male runners.

Feeling extremely disappointed in being unable to validate his activation before the the first runners had arrived, and needing to be able to devote his entire attention to the Iron Furnace Trail Run before more runners arrived, Eric finished his activation with twelve QSOs logged in about forty-two minutes of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at 5w output.

Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program for an operation at Zaleski State Forest, KFF-5004.