POTA Activation - Tu-Endie-Wei State Park, US-1823, and the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, US-4572, June 19, 2024

On a warm 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 Tu-Endie-Wei State Park, US-1823, and the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, US-4572.

Josh met Eric at his house in Athens, Ohio before setting out on their journey to West Virginia, a new state to activate, for Josh. After putting their lunches in the cooler, Josh's gear in Eric's car, and getting one of Eric's dogs, Theo, ready, the trio set out for their drive to Mountain State. They arrived before 1400 UTC and took a walk around the beautiful site on the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers. 

After their walk around the site, the two unpacked their gear and begun to assemble their stations on the south side of the park. Josh assembled his station consisting of Eric's Elecraft KX2 QRP transceiver, Josh's Wolf River Coils 213" whip, mounted on a ground spike with a window screen ground plane, and fed with 25’ of RG-8X coax. Eric's stationed consisted 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 situated under an old oak tree. Josh was on the air shortly after 1400 and Eric was on around 1415 UTC.

Josh's station with Eric's KX2.

Close up of the KX2 on 20 meters.

Eric's station.

His antenna and mast.

After setting the KX2's gain and compression settings, Josh decided to start his activation by hunting a Park-to-Park QSO in order to get a feel for how the radio works. He found W4RLS, activating US-6317 in Florida and completed their QSO at 1405 UTC. Josh then found an open frequency, 14.273, and checked to see if it was in use, after hearing no reply, he spotted himself on the POTA.app website and started calling CQ. After a few minutes of calling Josh setup a recording using the KX2's voice message function and set it on repeat. His first QSO on the frequency would come from K0OKE from Florida at 1416 UTC. His next would come right after with K1AOS, a Park-to-Park QSO from US-3649, again in Florida. After not getting another reply minutes later, Josh decided to hunt another Park-to-Park QSO with N5MHM from US-3039 in Texas at 1428 UTC. Josh then returned to 14.273 and began calling CQ again, this time he made contact with KQ4EZN from Florida and then WA2OUZ, a Park-to-Park from US-2135 in New York.

While activating, Josh and Eric also got to see a couple barges turn from the Ohio onto the Kanawha.

The "Laura S".

And this unmarked one as well.

Then Josh moved down to 40 meters by adding his Sporty Forty Coil to his antenna, he checked to see if 7.197 was in use and then repotted himself on the POTA website. His first contact came from his friend Patrick, KE8KLC, who lives in Kentucky, however he was in Tennessee at the time. They made contact at 1453 UTC. His next QSO on 40 was with KX4YQ from Virginia at 1456 UTC. After things slowed down, Josh hunted another Park-to-Park QSO with W3TWB from US-1356 in Pennsylvania at 1501 UTC. Sitting at nine QSOs, Josh needed another contact to make his activation, well, an activation. After cruising up and down 40 meters and using the POTA spotting page to find another Park-to-Park conatct, Josh's couldn't hear many of them, however, he heard KE5GTQ from a two-fer, US-0720 and US-4577 in South Carolina. They completed their QSO at 1511 UTC.

After Josh and Eric has all but wrapped up, they decided to make a Park-to-Park QSO with each other on 40 meter CW. This QSO marked Josh's first real CW QSO, as his first was using a rig's electronic keyer with preset memories. However, this time Josh did all the keying himself! A very exciting moment in his amateur radio career. The two packed up their stations and shared lunch, then took another walk around the site before heading south to US-7048, Chief Cornstalk Wildlife Management Area.

The views around the site, including the historic mansion!

Overall, Josh made 12 QSOs, 7 of them being Park-to-Park, in 1 hour and 11 minutes of operating time. All but one his QSOs were single-sideband and made with 5 watts of output power, the other used CW. Eric had made 20 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.