ACØPR, ham radio blog: QRP CW Parks on the Air at Sand Hollow State Park, UT

Surprisingly Sand Hollow State Park has never been activated before with Parks on the Air. I decided to go out again and see if I could do better this time with the radio with a good start. It was supposed to get to 110 degrees today, so the plan was to be out from 8-10am and call it a day.

There's one other Stake Park very close by, Quail Lake, which I'm sure I'll do next, but Sand Hollow is more popular so I wanted to get it in first. It seems there's no activator in this area though otherwise for sure it would have been done already.

Since I knew I would be close to where I parked I brought a little bit different gear. For example I
brought a 7 AH battery, which is bigger and heavy compared to my SOTA gear. I also used my Jackite pole which is taller and heavier than my fishing pole mast along with a metal tripod to keep it up in the air.

At the park:

I arrived about 7:45 and knew right where I wanted to go from having looked at Google Earth carefully. There were some trees for shade and even a park bench--so much nicer than sitting on the ground. It was on the beach, very sandy, very red sand. At that time there wasn't any other cars in the lot.

It didn't take too long to setup. I did have to find some rocks so the tripod didn't tip over, but there were some nearby. There were a few boats out, they weren't too loud but they did make waves on the beach, but with my headphones it wasn't overly distracting.

On the radio:
I got on frequency, sent a spot with my phone, and started to call CQ. I hadn't even finished and given my callsign when I went to adjust my camera for video and I started getting calls. I got a steady

stream for the first 10 minutes--most from the east coast. I was getting Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, New Jersey, Vermont--very different from the last time when I got very few contacts on 20 meters (and before I figured out the issues with my radio's settings). I had officially activated the park in those first ten minutes (I had 11 contacts). Very cool!

From that point, everything else is just extra and fun and relaxing. I tried to get a couple of park to park contacts, but the two I called just couldn't hear me. I switched over to 40 meters, which was great for me last time, but I only got two contacts (??) so that was odd. I went back to 20 and got a few more.

Even though I noticed it last time, this time I had more contacts sending me "44" which is from the WWFF/KFF program (World Wide Flora & Fauna). It's a predecessor to POTA. There's a huge, old controversy back in the day when one group split off to do their own thing. There are some notable differences. WWFF/KFF requires 44 qso's to activate, POTA is 10. POTA is similar to the one-year National Parks on the Air activity that was a huge success in that it includes some trails and historic areas, not just parks. Since it's not a big deal to submit the same log to both, that's what I'll be doing from now on to help those who are in it for only one of them (or both at the same time).

Video of the activation

Call	Bnd	Date / Time	Frequency	Mode	Name	ST	Rec	Snt
AA5UZ	20	7/31/2020 15:04	14.057	CW	JUDY	LA	559	579
N8II	20	7/31/2020 15:03	14.057	CW	Jeff	WV	549	599
AB0O	20	7/31/2020 15:02	14.057	CW	JOHN	MO	599	599
K0ERE	40	7/31/2020 14:44	7.037	CW	WILLIAM	KS	559	599
W6LEN	40	7/31/2020 14:42	7.037	CW	JESS	CA	599	599
WK2S	20	7/31/2020 14:34	14.057	CW	Art	NJ	559	599
W4KAC	20	7/31/2020 14:30	14.057	CW	KENNETH	NC	519	599
AE0XI	20	7/31/2020 14:23	14.057	CW	Terry	SD	549	599
KD8DEU	20	7/31/2020 14:22	14.057	CW	Allan	MI	599	599
K8RAT	20	7/31/2020 14:21	14.057	CW	WILLIAM	OH	549	559
NG5E	20	7/31/2020 14:21	14.057	CW	DAVID	TX	559	599
N0XE	20	7/31/2020 14:18	14.057	CW	JAMES	IA	222	579
K1PL	20	7/31/2020 14:16	14.057	CW	PAUL	CT	599	599
W5GDW	20	7/31/2020 14:15	14.057	CW	GARY	NC	559	599
AC0A	20	7/31/2020 14:14	14.057	CW	William	KS	559	599
KE1VT	20	7/31/2020 14:13	14.057	CW	KEVIN	VT	599	599
NE4TN	20	7/31/2020 14:12	14.057	CW	WALTER	TN	569	599
W9AV	20	7/31/2020 14:11	14.057	CW	Julien	WI	559	599
W1OPR	20	7/31/2020 14:11	14.057	CW	DUSTIN	ME	319	599
N4EX	20	7/31/2020 14:08	14.057	CW	RICHARD	NC	549	599
VE3LDT	20	7/31/2020 14:07	14.057	CW	David Wg	ON	559	599
N4MJ	20	7/31/2020 14:07	14.057	CW	GLENN	TN	569	599
K1RO	20	7/31/2020 14:06	14.057	CW	Mark	NH	559	599