I like to Rove.  I like the challenge and I like the sense of accomplishment.  I feel like a “real” portable operator – all the planning, the packing and unpacking, the setting up and tearing down, the making solid contacts with little more than a battery, a wire, and a lawn chair. I like the “leaning” of my gear and methods – the testing and proving until I’m convinced I’ve found the absolute best possible method for such vital tasks as say, picking the picnic table with the least spider webs under it.

I’m old and this trip wore me out. As Mike would say, I’m POTA Pooped, but satisfied and happy we did it.  The priority was to collect parks, more than collect memories, and that left little time to admire the views. I took some pictures to share, but I’ll pass on sharing the QSO details.  There’s not much to learn there except we made some contacts from lots of parks.

I achieved some personal POTA goals, that while important to me, have absolutely zero relevance to any other Ham.  I wanted 300 activations, check.  I wanted more unique parks, check.  I wanted Worked All States, check.  Note: The WAS has been tough for me because I don’t really hunt.  So, my WAS statistic is actually a P2P statistic. 

Before I get started, I have to recognize my appreciation for my Rove buddy NZ5K, Mike Mitchel who in truth, made this expedition happen.  I blocked out the week at work with PTO and left to my own laziness, I likely would’ve just parked at Eisenhower State Park for three days then spent the next year thinking I’d like to get up into that Arkansas hill country someday.  We’d casually talked about wanting to work the “Mena Parks” and while I procrastinated, Mike evolved a park and route plan into an actual itinerary.  Mike was the engine that turned our speculation into action.  Thanks, Mike!

I learned a few things and I’ll try to summarize at the end of this so they’re useful to you.  Here’s my tally for the trip. (This doesn’t include Mike’s logs.  His numbers are bigger)

Date	Park	CW	Data	Phone	Total
9/5/2024	US-2787 Hugo Lake State Park	13	0	0	13
9/5/2024	US-6353 Hugo Wildlife Management Area	10	0	0	10
9/5/2024	US-6337 Fort Towson State Historic Site	10	0	0	10
9/5/2024	US-11321 Winding Stair Mountain National Recreation Area	0	0	24	24
9/5/2024	US-4424 Ouachita National Forest	0	0	24	24
9/5/2024	US-1114 Queen Wilhelmina State Park	11	0	0	11
9/6/2024	US-11322 Beech Creek National Scenic Reserve	22	0	0	22
9/6/2024	US-11870 Lake Wilhelmina State Fishing Lake	0	0	17	17
9/6/2024	US-8321 Talimena Scenic Byway State Trail	11	0	0	11
9/6/2024	US-4424 Ouachita National Forest	11	0	0	11
9/6/2024	US-10426 West-Northwest State Trail	12	0	0	12
9/7/2024	US-7283 DeQueen Lake Wildlife Management Area	20	0	0	20
	GRAND TOTAL →	120	0	65	185

Rig(s):

I packed a ton of gear because I spend an inordinate amount of time mentally gaming solutions for any and all circumstances.  In the logistics world, some call this mental masterbation.  For example, I tend to carry several antennas and antenna deployment options. I’ll have a throwline set up plus a mast in case the trees don’t cooperate.  I bring EFHW wires, random length wires, telescoping verticals with a tripod, clamp mounts, mirror mounts, and on and on, and on.  Then I pack redundancies in case something doesn’t work or in case I happen across another Ham who needs something.  I really need to get a rope around these compulsions because my little Outback has become a mobile Hamfest.

• Yaesu FTM-6000 (UHF/VHF)
• Yaesu FT-991A
• 3, 20ah, LiPo Batteries
• Wolf River Coil set
• 40-10 EFHW w/ 49:1 Sparkplug transformer
• Packtenna 40-10 EFHW
• Packtenna Random
• Begali Expedition key
• Bioeno battery charger
• Surface Pro tablet
• 2374 tons of assorted radio and camping gidgets and gadgets
• My admin kit in a Maxpedition Fatty.

In the end, I just found myself pulling the bare essentials from the car – one trip, that’s it:

• FT991A
• Battery
• EFHW wire
• Throwline
• Feedline
• Key
• Admin pouch

Activations:

I realize I didn’t get photos of every park and to be perfectly honest, the activations are blurred in my memory and all seem pretty much the same.  We ran mostly CW with lesser or greater pileups every time – but some pileups every time.  Sometimes we ran two rigs, sometimes one, but never at the same time – 20 meters was king, though we did work other bands.  In CW, we activated in series, first one op activating, then the other.  Passing the key like two ops passing the SSB mic seemed too cumbersome.  We activated SSB in parallel, passing the mic for “second op”.

Most evident in my recall is how we set up – we drove through the parks, discussing the merits and potential sites over 2 meter radios.  Once we picked one, we stopped and set up.  We never planned anything, just pitched in to set up, each doing what the other wasn’t.  We got good at it, this silent collaboration.  I’d grab wire and throw bag, Mike’d grab rig and battery.  By the time I had the wire deployed, he’d be walking towards me with a feedline.  I think we made a great team and though I never timed anything it took at most, half the time of a usual setup.  Often by the time I made it to the picnic table, there was a radio running and key waiting.  We saw three sites with no picnic tables.  We used a portable table twice and tailgated the other time. 

I’d say my favorite spot was US-11322 Beech Creek National Scenic Reserve.  It’s a new spot with just a few folks activating before us.  Beautiful country but wild and raw.  According to the topo map on my GPS, we found the highest elevation in the reserve at about 6 miles in and worked from a portable table and comffy camp chairs.  I really recommend this park if you do the “Mena Parks”.

Seems crazy, but we met a dog there.  We were just getting set and he walked up, curious and friendly as can be.  He was obviously someone’s hunting dog complete with transmitting collar and antenna. Expecting a human to follow shortly, we gave him some water, but the human never showed.  Lost dog.  Mike found a name and phone number on the collar, called it and “Jeff” was really thankful we did.  He’d lost the dog the week before and though three hours away, came and found Rooster where we’d tied him to a tree.  He texted us a picture of their happy reunion (proof of life photo) which made us both feel better about trusting guy who seemed more concerned about recovering the expensive transmitting collar than the dog.  Including Rooster, Beech Creek is a fantastic place to play POTA.

9/5/2024 US-2787 Hugo Lake State Park

9/5/2024 US-6353 Hugo Wildlife Management Area

9/5/2024 US-6337 Fort Towson State Historic Site

9/5/2024 US-1114 Queen Wilhelmina State Park

9/6/2024 US-11322 Beech Creek National Scenic Reserve

9/6/2024 US-11870 Lake Wilhelmina State Fishing Lake

US-8321 Talimena Scenic Byway State Trail

9/7/2024 US-7283 DeQueen Lake Wildlife Management Area

I said I learned a few things and this is what I can remember:

• Map Recon and route planning.
  • This is invaluable.  Know where you’re going, know the order of where you’re going, and know the Lat Lon so you have different GPS options like iPhone Maps, Google Maps, and a hand held GPS.
• Convoy comms.
  • Finally something for your dual band radio beyond the weekly net.  Through hill and dale, VFH never failed to keep us connected.  At one point, we were discussing fuel needs and a local broke in and pointed us to the closest station.  There’s not only folks listening, but they’re kind folks.
• Noise Recon
  • State parks are noisy, lots of RF leaking from AC power.  Mike tuned his car radio to a blank spot on AM and drove around the park finding the quiet spots.  This is a darned clever trick that works!
• Keep a diary.
  • Everything eventually blurs together and some short notes can work to form context around your photos and logs.
• You don’t need all your gear.
  • In the normal activations, take note of the things you actually put your hands on during an activation.  Not the things you might need or want in case, but the things you actually use for operating.  You might be surprised by how many Amazon gadgets you don’t and never use.
• POLO is awesome.
  • This is a great logging app.  You can spot your activation, log QSOs and hunt all from the same app.  With location services enabled, it knows your park and park number.  It groups all of the admin-ish functions of getting your activation started all into one app.  Get it while it’s free.

This was a really fun three days.  I spent some quality time with a friend, saw some new and beautiful country, learned a lot about my own processes for portable radio, learned some new tricks from Mike, blew past some personal goals for POTA, and saved a dog.

Portable Radio Adventure!

TNX es 73
KA5TXN
DitWit