Lost River State Park
On the same vacation, I took a little road trip just inside West Virginia to Lost River State Park, K-1816 I kind of figured it would be a tough activation and I wasn’t wrong. Its a very nice park with lots of facilities – even a swimming pool! However, it is in a deep valley. I was pretty sure my 5 watt QCX mini wasn’t going to get out of the valley.
I picked what looked like a good path to get up on a ridge, The Laurel Trail looked promising. Then I saw this sign and it had the word “ridge” in it. Oh yeah, this is the way! The hike was steep, but enjoyable.
Near the top, I was met with this sign, so I went to the right as it appeared to be higher ground. Only running 5 watts, and not having cell service to spot myself, even up on the ridge, I needed all the help I could get.
POTA and QCX Mini
Finally at the top of the ridge! In the center of the photo on the left, is my 40 meter shortened vertical antenna. Its hard to see, but its there.
Once I got set up and started calling CQ POTA, it was slow going. One thing I did before I set out on this activation is I scheduled it on the POTA app. Doing this will get you automatically spotted.
I ended up with 11 QSO’s which made for a successful activation.