POTA Activation - Chief Cornstalk Wildlife Management Area, US-7048, June 19, 2024

On a very hot and sunny June afternoon, two members of the Athens County Amateur Radio Association, Josh Senefeld, N8VXR, and Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, conducted a successful Parks on the Air activation of Chief Cornstalk Wildlife Management Area, US-7048.

The pair of activators were joined by one of Eric's dog, Theo, and they arrived to the Chief Cornstalk Pond around 1715 UTC and took a short walk around the small site to take in the sights of the small but beautiful pond. After returning to Eric's car, they unpacked their gear and begun to assemble their stations. 

The sign on Upper 9 Mile Road.

Theo investigating the sign at the pond.

Josh assembled his station consisting of Eric's Yeasu FT-817ND QRP transceiver, LDG Z11 tuner, Eric's Chameleon Emcomm III end-fed antenna strung up in a tree in an inverted-V configuration, and fed with RG-58 coax. The process of getting the Emcomm III into the tree was not an easy task however. Eric's friend Thomas Witherspoon, K4SWL, had told Eric that getting a line into a tree with a proper throw weight was easy, however, the two found it's much easier with Thomas' level of experience! The pair had to take turn's getting the line into a tree nearby the picnic table Josh had setup at. It was on Josh's third or fourth attempt that he finally had gotten a branch that would work, not the one he was aiming for, but it would do. After tying off the line, it was finally time for Eric to setup his station consisting of his Elecraft KX3, a 28 1/2' random wire antenna with three counterpoise wires laid on the ground, his antenna was raised up on a 31' Jackite telescoping mast that he strapped to his camp chair nearby his car under some shade. They both were on the air shortly after 1740 UTC.

Josh's view while operating.

Josh and Eric had almost no cell service at the pond, but Eric had just enough to text his friends K8RAT and K4SWL to spot Josh on 40 meters. Before Eric sent that text, Josh had identified 7.195 to be an empty frequency and began calling CQ. His first QSO came from KX4YQ from Virginia at 1743 UTC, he had also hunted Josh at his previous activation that day. Next up was AD2CD from New Jersey at 1745, then WA9TMU from Indiana and K8GQ from West Virginia, both at 1746 UTC. Then things took a turn, after calling CQ more and more, the sun shifted and suddenly the picnic table Josh was seated at the previously had plenty of shade was now in direct sunlight, not a deal breaker, but very unpleasant. Just when things weren't ideal, they got ugly. Suddenly the LDG Z11 wouldn't keep it's tune and would insist on retuning, so Josh switched to CW and gave the tuner a single to tune with, after it was happy he switched back to sideband and then it would loose the tune again. Josh had also checked to see if the radio was heating up and the black metal was very hot! Eric came over after seeing Josh's struggle and they packed up the FT-817ND and Josh switched to the Elecraft KX2, which was also warm, but not like the FT-817ND, and he also grabbed Eric's other camp chair to try and setup in the shade. Josh also quipped to Eric that the 817ND was "hot enough to fry an egg on."

After connecting the antenna to the KX2 and engaging the ATU and finding a match, Josh began using the voice memory to send his CQ calls. However, this would end up being useless as almost 45 minutes went by without a single QSO. Eric had finished up by now and came to check on Josh and after hearing about his situation, moved Josh down to his chair and had him connect to the 28 1/2' antenna and try to get more contacts. The KX2 had also started to heat up by this point, but Eric's setup was still in some shade. Eric then began disassembling the Emcomm III antenna and packed up some other odds and ends as well. Josh managed to get another two sideband contacts from Eric's setup, first with W0CGC from Tennessee at 1842 UTC and then K9ICP from Indiana at 1843 UTC. Then things went silent again, after Eric was done packing up what remained of Josh's station, he pulled out his KX3 and connected a small dummy load. The two then ran up the bands making CW Park-to-Park QSOs with each other in order for Josh to have a valid activation of Chief Cornstalk WMA. They made contacts on 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meters creating another eight QSOs for Josh, while also giving him more CW contacts and practice on air.

The view up and down Chief Cornstalk Pond.

Overall, Josh made 14 QSOs, 8 of them being Park-to-Park, in 1 hour and 23 minutes of operating time. Most of his contacts were CW and made with 5 watts of output power, the other used single-sideband. Eric had made 23 QSOs, all his were CW and made with 5 watts of output power. Eric’s report of his activation can be found on his website under the “Event Reports” tab.