by William Eric McFadden

From the state park website:

Camp Creek State Park and Forest is known for beautiful waterfalls and great camping. With nearly 6,000 acres of lush forest, 35 miles of trails and seven miles of seasonally stocked trout streams, there is something for every hiker, biker, horseback rider and angler to explore and enjoy. The pristine area was officially named a state park in 1987 after 550 acres were marked off from the Camp Creek State Forest. Located off I-77 in Mercer County, the park is great for family trips and stop-overs during a scenic drive through southern West Virginia.

Pictures

Description

On Friday, May 2, 2025, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Camp Creek State Park (US-5584) in West Virginia as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

On the drive to Holden Beach, North Carolina, for a family vacation, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, stopped at Camp Creek State Park for what he had hoped would be a quick activation. (Spoiler alert: it wasn't a quick activation.) Eric was accompanied by his wife Vickie, and their two dogs, Theo and Ginny.

Eric, Vickie, and the dogs arrived at Camp Creek State Park at about 1830 UTC and spent a few minutes exploring the park for a good operating location, eventually finding a flat, grassy spot near the burbling Camp Creek. Eric deployed his 28½' end-fed random wire as a vertical on his 31' Jackite telescoping fiberglass mast bungied to his folding camp-chair, placing three 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Placing his Elecraft KX2 on the folding camp-chair's pop-up table, Eric was on the air at 1854 UTC.

Camp Creek
Camp Creek
Camp Creek.

Eric's station
Eric's station, with Theo.

Eric 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.

Given the solar numbers of SFI 152, SN 38, A-Index at 28, and K-Index at 4, Eric was hoping the HF bands wouldn't in really awful shape. It turns out, the bands were in terrible shape.

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 1858 UTC with K0FD in Missouri. This was followed at 1907 UTC by a QSO with K9IS in Wisconsin. Then..., nothing.

Eric operated
Eric struggles through poor propagation;
photo by Victoria McFadden.

At 1912 UTC, Eric switched 17m, found himself a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. Six minutes of calling produced no responses.

At 1919 UTC, Eric switched 40m, found himself a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run came at 1924 UTC with N0BPM in Indiana. QSOs came steadily, if not quickly, with Eric's fifth QSO in this run coming at 1936 UTC with KD9PHY in Indiana. This run included QSOs with operators located in Indiana (3) and New York (2).

At 1940 UTC, Eric switched to 30m, found himself a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. Seven minutes of calling produced no responses.

Hoping for QSOs with his friends K8RAT and W8VQ in Ohio, and with K4SWL in North Carolina, Eric first tried 60m, and then tried 80m, but the KX2's internal antenna tuner failed to find a good match on either band.

After realizing he could check POTA Spots for P2P QSO possibilities, at 1955 UTC Eric made a P2P QSO with AG3I who was activating PA 310 State Game Land (US-9001) in Pennsylvania.

Returning to 40m to run a frequency, Eric's first QSO in this run came at 1959 UTC with AG2O in New York. This was followed at 2000 UTC by a QSO with K3ES in Pennsylvania, a QSO that Eric initially thought was his tenth QSO of the activation. However, in looking over his log, he was disappointed to see that the QSO with AG2O in this run was a dupe, Eric having already worked him during his first run on 40m. Thus, the QSO with K3ES was Eric's ninth, and he still needed one more QSO to validate this long and painful activation.

Eric again switched to 30m but no QSOs were made. Finally, after returning again to 20m, at 2023 UTC, Eric made a QSO with VE4RBH in Manitoba. With this QSO, Eric validated his POTA activation with ten QSOs.

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

Eric had originally planned to perform a two-fer activation of Shot Tower State Park (US-1317) and New River Trail State Park (US-1310) in Virginia as he and his wife continued their drive towards Holden Beach but, given how much time this activation of Camp Creek State Park had taken, Eric decided the wise course would be to postpone the two-fer activation in Virginia until the return trip. However, because Shot Tower State Park was just minutes off their route south, Eric did stop at the park in order to look it over for next time.

(return)