POTA Activation - Strouds Run State Park, US-1994, April 24, 2024

On a chilly April evening, Josh Senefeld, N8VXR, conducted a successful Parks on the Air activation of Strouds Run State Park, US-1994.

Josh arrived to Strouds Run and headed for the picnic area by the swim-beach area, he only found one car parked at the picnic area, but no one was at the picnic tables. Josh parked the car at 2255 UTC and began setting up his station consisting of his Icom IC-718, Wolf River Coils 213” vertical whip with a window screen ground plane, mounted on a ground spike, and fed with 25’ of RG-8X coax. Josh used the Ham2K Portable Logger logging program on his iPad again for this activation because of his success with the application during his previous activation, Josh was on the air by 2304 UTC.

Josh's view during the sunset.

His antenna before packing up.

Josh decided to run 40-meters exclusively again, much like his previous activation, this time he found the band to be even more lucrative than his previous activation. Josh's activation started off pretty slow with his first contacts coming at 2310 UTC from WD8IIJ in Ohio and W8MPD in Maryland. Next Up was KC8IQ in Michigan at 2311, and then KQ4NTV in North Carolina at 2312 UTC. Josh's first Park-to-Park came at 2319 from AA4RO was at two Parks in Florida, US-4472 and US-4559. Another followed shorty after from K9ASE from US-4172 in Indiana at 2322 UTC. His only two Canadian contacts came at 2327 and 2338 UTC respectively from VA3CWZ and VA3ET, both in Ontario. Also at 2328 UTC was another Park-to-Park QSO, this time with AJ4FF who was in two Parks, US-4986 and US-9935 in Virginia. At 2336 and 2337 Josh made two Park-to-Park QSOs with KB2YJH and KD2YQE, both in US-2014 in Long Island, New York. More Park-to-Park QSOs were on the Horizon for Josh, at 2348 he made contact with KC8LUB from US-11241 in Tennessee. A few minutes later at 2352 UTC, Josh made his last Park-to-Park QSO of the day with K1WIT, who was in US-0324 in Massachusetts.

The UTC day was almost over, so Josh took a small 5 minute break from 2355 - 0000 UTC so he could rest his voice and get a new log file made. His first contact after the day switched came immediately after Josh re-spotted himself at 0000 with KE8WNX in Michigan. Then a Park-to-Park QSO came immediately after with K9ASE from US-4178 in Indiana, also at 0000 UTC. It didn't take very long before Josh had a huge pileup of stations trying to call him, next up at 0001 UTC was K4KAO in South Carolina and KD4RAU in Pennsylvania. His first Canadian contact came from VA3IMW in Ontario at 0004 UTC. One of Josh's farthest contacts of the evening came from N5HA from Louisiana at 0007 UTC, measuring in at roughly 830 miles. Another Canadian came at 0013 UTC from VA3LG in Ontario, a few mintues later he picked up another with VE3LBI at 0018 UTC, also in Ontario. His last Canadian contact from VE3TJD at 0026 UTC, his second to last QSO. His last came from KI5ZDQ in North Carolina at 0027 UTC. 

Overall, Josh made 72 QSOs before the UTC switch over, 7 of them being Park-to-Park, in 45 minutes of operating time. He made 53 QSOs after the UTC switch, 1 of them being Park-to-Park, in 27 minutes of operating time. Yet another new rate record for Josh! All his QSOs were single-sideband and made with 50 watts of output power.