POTA Activation - Strouds Run State Park, US-1994, June 8, 2024

On an overcast and coll June afternoon, Josh Senefeld, N8VXR, and Cade Saugier, KC3EKE, conducted a successful Parks on the Air activation of Strouds Run State Park, US-1994. This was Josh's 19th activation of the park on his hunt to complete the Oasis Repeat Offender Awards for 20 activations from the same Parks on the Air entity. Josh has also been hunting for the Kilo Award for making 1000 QSOs from the same Parks on the Air Entity.

Prior to this activation, Josh had 18 successful activations of Strouds Run with 825 QSOs, after this activation he now has 19 activations with 875 QSOs.

When Josh and Cade arrived to the park they wanted to activate from Josh's usual spot, the picnic tables by the swim beach area because Cade's wife was going to join the two later to grill chicken for dinner. However, the picnic tables were being used by a large family, so they drove around by the swim beach area and found it to be very packed with people. Josh decided, much like his previous activation, to head up to and check out the Horsemen's Area of the park. They arrived around 1900 UTC and found two horse trailers there with 4 horses there with their owners, however they were not using the picnic table, so they walked around the site to identify some good trees for Cade to use for his 20 and 10 meter fan dipole. Then they unpacked their gear from Josh's car and began to setup their stations. Josh setup his station consisting of his Icom IC-718, Wolf River Coils 213” vertical whip with a window screen ground plane, all mounted on a ground spike, and fed with 25’ of RG-8X coax. Cade's station consisted of a Kenwood TS-130V, a homemade 10 and 20 meter fan dipole strung up in the trees and fed with roughly 50' of RG-58 coax. Josh was on the air by 1945 UTC.

Josh's view while operating.

Josh's gear.

His antenna.

Cade's operating position and gear.

Josh found his cell signal to be good so he checked the POTA.app website in order to find some Park-to-Park QSOs. Josh started off on the 20 meter band and hunting 14 different parks in Maine, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida, and Montana. Josh needed Montana for his POTA Worked All States award so his contact with W0YKS from US-4504 and US-4558 was very appreciated! He was on 20 meters for about 32 minutes.

Then he took a short break and changed to 40 meters around 2030 and hunted more Park-to-Park QSOs. His first was with AC9BJ from US-9830, US-4238, and US-9814 in Wisconsin at 2032, Josh had hunted AC9BJ earlier on 20 meters, so it was nice to get him in the log again. Next up was with N4DVR from US-3378 in North Carolina at 2035. Then Josh wanted to start calling CQ, so he found 7.193 to be empty and spotted himself. His first contact was with W7KMC from US-5584 in West Virgina at 2038, then KE9AEL from US-0991 in Illinois at 2040. Just a couple minutes later he got another Park-to-Park QSO, this time with KC3YZI/AG from US-1589 in Maryland at 2042. While Josh was on 40, Cade was trying to call CQ on 10 meters to no avail, so Josh turned his power down and gave Cade a call so they could both get a 10 meter contact and a Park-to-Park with each other at 2050. Josh then hopped back down to 40 meters and noticed another station had parked right below 7.193, so Josh moved up to 7.196 and started calling CQ again at 2053 UTC. Josh did manage to get a friendly Canadian on 40 meters, VA3YYC from Ontario at 2054. After a few more QSOs, Josh hunted 2 more Park-to-Park contacts, KB8DX from US-5585 in West Virginia at 2100 and N3APC from US-4567 in Pennsylvania at 2103.

Josh then hopped up to 15 meters to get a Park-to-Park and DX contact with 8P6PE from BB-0013 in Barbados at 2108. 

After a great dinner cooked by the Saugier's, Josh hopped back on 40 meters at 2208 and made a Park-to-Park QSO with K9RFL from US-0996 in Illinois. Josh found 7.193 to be free and clear again so he decided to spot himself and start calling CQ so he could get up to 50 QSOs for the activation. During this run Josh made 2 more Park-to-Park contacts this time with N8JJO from US-3305 in Michigan at 2218 and then AH2EJ from US-2745 in North Carolina at 2219, his 50th QSO of the activation and his 875th QSO from Strouds Run. After sending out one more CQ call, Josh called it an activation since it was almost dinner time.

After dinner, Cade had an hour run on 20 meters at 5 watts and racked up 35 QSOs, Josh logged for Cade since he wasn't used to how fast running a frequency can be when activating. They wrapped up around 9pm local time, right after sunset.

Overall, Josh made 50 QSOs, 28 of them being Park-to-Park, in the span of 2 hours and 32 minutes. All his QSOs were single-sideband and made with 50 watts of output power.