Mini Rove

Earlier this week I had a day without my usual obligations, so I planned to do a POTA/WWFF activation somewhere. I was originally thinking of visiting one of my usual local parks. My (far) better half, however, suggested I take advantage of my free day to activate some parks in the other end of the county I had been planning to re-visit. She’s always right, so off I went.

The first stop was White Clay Creek Preserve (US-6433), which I last activated a year ago. With Monday morning rush hour traffic, it took over an hour to get to this park near the Pennsylvania-Delaware border. 

My location at White Clay Creek Preserve (US-6433)
My location at White Clay Creek Preserve (US-6433)

When I finally got there, I set up my 12-foot whip and homebrew loading coil, along with my Penntek TR-35 (5 watts, CW). I fired up the rig on the 40M band and encountered a horrendous noise level. It was so bad, I didn’t even try to use the band. This was my fourth activation at this location, and I can’t recall running into noise issues like that. I ended up splitting my time between 30M and 20M. Those bands had some noise, but nowhere near as bad as 40M. 

Despite the local noise, band conditions were pretty good. After 45 minutes, I had 28 contacts in the log. No DX today, but I had one park-to-park contact. After taking the antenna down, I took a short, three-mile drive over to Big Elk Creek State Park (US-9721, KFF-6093).

Situated on the Maryland border, Big Elk Creek became a state park in 2022. My first activation there was about two months after POTA added the park. Two years ago there were no amenities whatsoever. This time, I found the trailhead now had a gravel parking lot, portable toilet, and some picnic tables. 

When I last visited this trailhead in Big Elk Creek State Park (US-9721, KFF-6093) it was just a dirt parking lot. Now there's a gravel parking lot, portable toilet, and some picnic tables.
When I last visited this trailhead in Big Elk Creek State Park (US-9721, KFF-6093) it was just a dirt parking lot. Now there’s a gravel parking lot, portable toilet, and some picnic tables (off camera).

I used the same setup as the previous park. Thankfully, I didn’t have to deal with noise problems. I made a few contacts on 40M before moving up to 20M and 17M for the rest of the activation. Besides the POTA spotting page, I spotted myself using the smartWWFF app. That brought out the Europeans, especially on 17M: 

  • Finland
  • France (2)
  • Germany
  • Slovak Republic (2)
  • Slovenia
  • Latvia
  • Italy

Activating under both the POTA and WWFF programs certainly increases the number of hunters out looking for you. 

In a little over an hour, I had 35 contacts with four park-to-park contacts. I briefly thought about making a quick trip into Delaware to activate White Clay Creek State Park, but saved that one for another time. 

All in all, it was a fun way to spend my free day. I’m glad I listened to my (far) better half.

72, Craig WB3GCK

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