POTA Activation - Strouds Run State Park, US-1994, March 31, 2024

On an cool March afternoon, Josh Senefeld, N8VXR, conducted a successful late shift Parks on the Air activation of Strouds Run State Park, US-1994.

Josh arrived to Strouds Run and found the Bulldog Shelter to be unoccupied, Josh parked his car and started unpacking around 2900 UTC. Once everything was under the shelter, Josh found a nice spot for his antenna, put the ground spike in the ground and then attached the Wolf River Coils 213" whip. After attaching the window screen and using his sticks to hold the screen down he retracted about 6" of the whip and attached the coax to his radio. Josh was on the air by 2310 UTC making this a fully late shift activation.

Josh's setup right before tearing down.

The antenna setup.

It was about an hour before the CQ World-Wide WPX Single Sideband contest would end at 0000 UTC on 1-April-2024, Josh did manage to find some time in the late morning/early afternoon to participate in the contest at the Ohio University Amateur Radio Club's station in the Stocker Center at OU and made 61 QSOs worth 7,150 points! Josh did manage to find a clear frequency at 14.327 MHz and started calling CQ after asking if the frequency was in use, shorty after he started calling CQ a WP4 station parked right under Josh around 14.326 but Josh was still able to make contacts with ease. His first came from W5VAN in Arkansas at 2310 UTC, Josh's first Park-to-Park QSO came from K5EDW from US-3050 in Texas at 2312 UTC. His next Park-to-Park QSO came at 2329 UTC from K2AJO who was in two parks, US-9220 and US-2001 both in New York. Another twenty minutes or so of contacts went by and then Josh had a little lull in QSOs until AL7KC came calling from Alaska at 2344 UTC.

At 2351 UTC, Josh decided to take a small break before the UTC day would switch over to hydrate and use the bathroom located near the shelter. After returning, Josh moved up the band slightly and found 14.329 MHz to be clear. With it now being 0000 UTC on 1-April-2024, Josh made a new log file to keep his dates separate and then repotted himself on the POTA website, his first QSO came from KN6KI in California at 0002 UTC. Josh had the park activated in a record four minutes, with his tenth contact coming from KK7RUQ in Montana. His first Park-to-Park QSO of the "new day" came from KI5ZQD from US-2984 in Texas at 0007 UTC, followed up by another from KA1VRY from US-9179 in Kansas at 0009 UTC. Then Josh hit the jackpot with WQ0A who was in three parks in Kansas, US-4579, US-4566, and US-4576 at 00016 UTC, his last Park-to-Park was with KA5PMV from US-3056 in Texas. Then Josh got a called from VE7VAK/PW7 in Arizona at 0025 UTC. Josh's last QSO of the night came from W9LG in Nebraska at 0026 UTC.

Overall, Josh made 83 QSOs, 6 of them being Park-to-Park, in 1 hour and 16 minutes of operating time. All of his QSOs were SSB and were made with 50 watts of output power.