POTA Activation - Strouds Run State Park, US-1994, April 3, 2024

On an cold and windy April morning, Josh Senefeld, N8VXR, conducted a successful Parks on the Air activation of Strouds Run State Park, US-1994, after his successful activation of Lake Hope State Park, US-1994, and Zaleski State Forest, US-5455.

Josh arrived to Strouds Run and found the Bulldog Shelter to be empty! Out of all the sites that Josh has activated Strouds Run from, he's found the Bulldog Shelter to be his favorite. Josh parked and unloaded his gear from his trunk. Josh began setting up around 1450 UTC. Starting with putting ground spike in the ground, then attaching the Wolf River Coils 213" whip, and laying out the window screen, then extending the whip and retracting it 6", then attaching the coax and running it over to his IC-718. Josh was on the air by 1507 UTC.

Josh's operating position.

Josh's WRC 213" whip.

Unlike at Lake Hope, Josh had cell service at the Bulldog shelter and was able to identify a open frequency and started calling CQ after spotting himself. His first contact came from W5JBF in Texas at 1507 UTC, next was K5VV in Louisiana at 1509 UTC, then AA7RS in Utah at 1510 UTC. Josh's first Park-to-Park QSO came next with KE0OMJ from US-0710 and US-9757 in Missouri. Josh didn't manage to get any other Park-to-Park QSOs while running the frequency.

After things started to slow down, Josh went QRT on his frequency and then started to hunt some more Park-to-Park contacts. His second came from KF4Y and K4PCG from US-1914 in Florida at 1543 UTC. Then KD2ZZA from US-3632, also in Florida at 1545 UTC. His last was from KF0EHL from US-8156 in South Dakota at 1551 UTC.

Overall, Josh made 28 QSOs, 5 of them being Park-to-Park, in 44 minutes of operating time. All of his QSOs were SSB and were made with 50 watts of output power.