POTA Activation - Lake Alma State Park, US-1967, July 1, 2024

On a cool and breezy July morning, Josh Senefeld, N8VXR, conducted a successful Parks on the Air activation of Lake Alma State Park, US-1967.

Josh arrived to Lake Alma at 1255 UTC and parked his car near the Birch Bottom Shelter. He then unpacked his gear and setup at a picnic table under the shelter on the west side. Then Josh scouted out a nearby tree to identify a good branch to put an arborist throw line through as he wanted to use a Chameleon Emcomm III that his buddy Eric, WD8RIF, had loaned to Josh. After many failed attempted at a very nice branch, Josh decided to try for a slightly lower hanging one and got it on his second try! After attaching the radiating element to the end of his throw line he raised the antenna up and it ended up making an inverted-vee shape. Josh then placed the transformer and winder on the edge of the concrete slab the shelter sits on and tied his throw weight to the line on the other side in order to keep the antenna in an inverted-vee shape. He placed the counterpoise out towards the metal grill. After the antenna was setup Josh began to setup his station consisting of his Yeasu FT-187ND, Eric's LDG Z-11 automatic antenna tuner, Chameleon Emcomm III end-fed antenna, and RG-58 coax. He was on the air by 1335 UTC.

Josh's station with Eric's AME Mini-B miniature single-lever paddle.

The end of the Emcomm III that Josh placed under his backpack.

His throw weight keep and extra line.

His throw line running up to the end of the antenna.

After Josh was ready to load the POTA.app website to look for potential Park-to-Park QSO, he noticed that he didn't have any cell service at the Birch Bottom Shelter, but after walking north for about thirty feet, he picked up one bar of signal. After sitting back down his smidge of cell service remained and he decided to start on 20 meter CW. He found NS1C activating US-8386 in Massachusetts and made contact with him at 1338 UTC.

At this point, an older woman was dropped off at the shelter by her daughter, Josh wasn't sure why because she didn't speak to Josh at first because he had his earphones in, but after she heard him keying she eventually waived to him and Josh took out his headphones to speak to her. She was curious about what Josh was doing, so he explained to her that he was an amateur radio operator and she was amazed when Josh told her that he knew and was sending and decoding Morse code. They had a nice conversation and then Josh unplugged his headphones and let her listen to his next CW QSO before she left.

Josh found and made contact with N5FZ from US-4422 in Texas at 1348 UTC before the woman left. Switching to sideband, Josh found K1AOS who was activating US-3649 in Florida and completed their QSO at 1357 UTC. Josh then found an empty frequency and started calling CQ, this run yielded nine QSOs include four Park-to-Parks. The first Park-to-Park came at 1409 with KO4VYT who was activating US-3633 in Floria, she was amazed to learn that Josh was operating QRP because she gave him a 59 signal report! Next was AB4KN who was in three parks, US-7467, US-7140, and US-7141 in Georgia, they made contact at 1416 UTC.

Josh then moved down to 40 meter sideband and found a frequency to call CQ on, this run yielded three QSOs with KE8UKX, KC3NQB, and KD2KAK all in five minutes! Then things dried up and Josh hunted KQ4AWF who was activating US-1304 in Virginia at 1436 UTC.

Switching back to 20 meter sideband, Josh hunted three Park-to-Park QSOs. First was KI5RWC from US-2356 in Louisiana at 1440 UTC, then K1MCO from US-3605 in Florida at 1444 UTC, and lastly KB1NNH from US-1847, also in Florida at 1447 UTC.

Then jumping back down to 40 meter, now CW, Josh hunted NG2H from US-9935 in Virginia at 1455 UTC and then WM3PEN from US-0761, Valley Forge National Historic Park, at 1501. His contact with WM3PEN was challenging because the operator of the club callsign was sending at 29 WPM according to their spots from the Reverse Beacon Network, however Josh was still able to decode his call sign and signal report and the operator worked Josh no problem!

Switching to sideband, Josh hunted a pair of activators, KD2CZY and KC2VAW from US-5005 in New York at 1503 and 1504 UTC respectively. Then Josh switched back to CW and hunted KB6NU from US-3322 in Michigan at 1512 UTC. For his 25th and last QSO, he switched to 20 meters and hunted WA7LNW from US-11757, an All Time New One in Utah at 1518 UTC. This QSO was difficult because of the distance and up and down band conditions, but mostly due to Josh's keying being off and him messing up his call sign once and then the signal report once.

Around the same time, a few cars had arrived at the shelter for a large family picnic. Josh didn't know at first if they were going to use the shelter, however since the Park-to-Parks dried up shortly after noon hit, he decided to start packing up. After the family had seen this they started to move their stuff under the shelter, but didn't speak to Josh, nevertheless, Josh packed up his gear somewhat hastily. After everything was in his bag, he pulled down his antenna and throw line and just gathered them up and took his gear to his car. He then layed out the antenna and wrapped up around the winder, then he tried to unravel his throw line, but it wasn't cooperating and after fighting with it, Josh wrapped up what he had loose from the mess in a figure eight around his hand and wrapped it up. After he gets back home he'll deal with the mess of line that was still tangled into a giant mess.

Overall, Josh made 25 QSOs, 17 of them being Park-to-Park, in 1 hour and 40 minutes of operating time. All his QSOs were made with 5 watts of output power and were a mix of CW and SSB.