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

On a humid July evening, Josh Senefeld, N8VXR, conducted a successful Parks on the Air activation of Strouds Run State Park, US-1994. Josh has been hunting for the Kilo Award for making 1000 QSOs from the same Parks on the Air Entity, prior to this activation, Josh had 936 QSOs from Strouds Run, after this activation he now 959 QSOs.

Josh arrived to Strouds Run around 2205 UTC and he found the picnic tables by the swim beach area to be unoccupied. He parked his car and then started to setup his station consisting of his Yeasu FT-817ND, his new to him LDG Z-817 ATU, WD8RIF's Chameleon Emcomm III end-fed antenna strung up in a tree fed with RG-58 coax, and his brand new CWMorse Pocket Single Paddle Iambic Key in purple. He was on the air by 2230 UTC.

Josh's whole station.

His Z-817 atop his FT-817ND.

His new single lever paddle from CWMorse.us.

Josh decided to start his activation by hunting some CW Park-to-Park QSOs on the 40 meter band, however, he noticed that he barely had any cell service at this site. He walked towards State Park Road and managed to pick up one bar of signal, after a few spots loaded, he returned to his rig. His first contact was made with W2TEF from US-1619 in New Jersey at 2236 UTC. Next was KD7DTS from US-7973 in Maryland at 2238 UTC.

Switching to single-sideband, Josh hunted Don, W8DRP, from Cowan Lake State Park, US-1943 at 2244. Don told Josh that his son lives in Athens and that he was hoping to visit Strouds Run soon to do a POTA activation. Josh told Don that the park and Dow Lake are beautiful and always makes for a good activation.

Josh then found 7.197 MHz to be empty and after checking to see if the frequency was in use, spotted himself and started calling "CQ Parks on the Air." Josh quickly worked WE9O, KE4ZUN, K9ICP, and KO4SXH in seven minutes! Then when things dried up, he switched to CW and found another Park-to-Park to work, KE8NJW from Delaware State Wildlife Area, US-9456 at 2315. Siting at eight QSOs and hoping to pack up and make it to the grocery store at a reasonable time, Josh started to try to hunt more Park-to-Park QSOs. However, due to the poor cell service Josh had, he was unable to get the spots page to load. However, after tuning around the 40 meter band, Josh found KE8UKX in Darke State Wildlife Area, US-9455 and completed their contact at 2345 UTC, thirty minutes after his last QSO!

Now at nine QSOs, Josh decided to return to 7.197 MHz and respot himself. Not even a mintue later Josh had his first pileup while operating QRP! He ended up making fourteen QSOs in about twelve minutes including a Park-to-Park with N2ZK from US-10080 in New York at 2355 UTC. Josh made his last contact of the activation at 2359, right before the UTC change, with KC3KJQ in Maryland. Josh then teared down his station and headed to the grocery store!

Overall, Josh made twenty-three QSOs, in 1 hour and 23 minutes of operating time. Twenty QSOs were single-sideband, three were CW, and all were made made with 5 watts of output power.