POTA Activation - Strouds Run State Park, US-1994, April 1, 2024

On an warm April 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 with his girlfriend, Michelle, and decided to see if the Lakeview Shelter was empty. Indeed it was! So Josh parked and got his gear, it was nice to have Michelle there to help him carry his ground network and sticks to hold it down. Josh began setting up under the shelter at 2036 UTC, he found a good spot for his antenna next to the barbecue grill where is antenna would be out of the way of the nearby trees, he then put the ground spike in the ground, attached the Wolf River Coils 213" whip, window screen (of course with the sticks to hold it down), retracted about 6" of the whip, and attached the coax to his radio. Josh was on the air by 2050 UTC.

Josh's view from the shelter.

(Michelle was making friends with some ducks.)

Since Josh had been at Strouds during the UTC date turning over, he continued to use his log from the previous night, his first contact came from KD2TTM in New York at 2151 UTC, then his first Park-to-Park QSO came at 2054 from W8YDE in US-3507 in Texas. Then a familiar callsign popped up, KD9YAY, Kristyn in Wisconsin! Josh remembers their first QSO on 19-March-2024 because Josh pronounced her callsign "Kilo Delta Nine Yay!" Kristyn had remarked that she loves when people pronounce her callsign like that. His next Park-to-Park QSO came from KO4GBB from US-7465 in Georgia at 2100, five minutes later another Park-to-Park from N5GOK from US-0543 in Texas, and two minutes after him he got another Park-to-Park from N4SAX from Florida who was at US-1873. After his last QSO with KA0REN from Missouri at 2115 UTC, Josh decided to hunt a couple activators for some more Park-to-Park credit, he found K5DGR from US-3031 in Texas at 2121 UTC and W9JCR from US-2356 in Louisiana.

Overall, Josh made 40 QSOs, 6 of them being Park-to-Park, in 33 minutes of operating time. In total, he made 82 contacts during the whole UTC day. All of his QSOs were SSB and were made with 50 watts of output power.