On Saturday, September 8, 2018, members of the ACARA participated in the 11th annual PCARS “Ohio State Parks on the Air” (link), activating Strouds Run State Park at the Bulldog Shelter, operating under the club’s callsign, W8UKE.
Participants:
Josh Cash, KE8EAS
Bob Curtis, KD8FRQ
John McCutcheon, N8XWO
Drew McDaniel, W8MHV
Eric McFadden, WD8RIF
Miles McFadden, KD8KNC
Bob Moore, KC8KSM
Steve Norris, AD8BD
Andy Young, KD8WVX
Taylor Young (not licensed)
The weather forecast had called for rain and, boy, did it rain during the event. Fortunately, the rain held off long enough for the team to erect the military-surplus AN/GRA-4 mast at 30′ and pull up the 80/40m fan-dipole, and the rain stopped just prior to tear-down so no one got soaked during set-up or tear-down. The Bulldog shelter, with the addition of a 9’x7′ tarp arranged as a wind-break, provided adequate shelter from the rain and wind for the team and the equipment.
Josh Cash, KE8EAS, provided his Kenwood TS-480SAT transceiver, a rig that worked beautifully for the event. Josh also made the majority of the contacts, despite the need to leave two hours prior to the end of the event.
As has become the custom, at 5 o’clock those present had a cookout/pot-luck. Miles McFadden, KD8KNC, brought fire in the form of a two-burner propane grill and cooked bratwurst and baked beans to share; John McCutcheon, N8XWO, brought his crowd-favorite broccoli salad to share.
By the time the event was over, the team had made a total of 86 QSOs and had worked 28 Ohio State Parks for a score of 2,433 points. Josh Cash, KE8EAS; Andy Young, KD8WVX; and Miles McFadden, KD8KNC, all made contacts. Unusually, most of the contacts were made on 80m this year. In fact, no Ohio State Parks were worked on 40m and all of the contacts made on 40m were with stations located well outside of Ohio.
The ACARA took 1st-place in class in 2016 and 2017. Is this year’s score good enough to take 1st-place again? We need to await the publishing of the results to see!
Eric McFadden, WD8RIF
President, Athens County Amateur Radio Association
The 80m/40m fan-dipole supported by the military-surplus AN/GRA-4 mast
UPDATE 2018-12-05
PCARS has published the results from the 2018 Ohio State Parks on the Air event (link) and the ACARA operating as W8UKE at Strouds Run State Park took 2nd place out of four entries in “multi-op, single radio, low power, in a park” class with 2,405 points. The winning effort in this class was the team of KC8OKJ/K8IYO who activated Pike Lake State Park as KC8OKJ and earned 3,211 points.
ACARA member Robert Riordan, KA4VNK, performed a solo activation of Forked Run State Park and his 459 points placed him in 7th place out of twelve entries in “single-op, low power, in a park” class.
ACARA member Jeff Slattery, N8SUZ, performed a solo activation of Jackson Lake Park but his operation doesn’t appear in the PCARS published standings. Perhaps Jeff didn’t submit an entry this year.