As I outlined in a previous post on my Meade State Park activation, I decided to take a 4th of July trip out to western Kansas to activate some parks as I continue toward my goal of putting all Kansas State Parks on the air on satellites. While I was originally uncertain whether I’d make it to a second park that weekend, after the success earlier in the day Saturday, it seemed like hitting another park Sunday (7/5) morning before driving back to Kansas City was doable given the pass predictions. I headed out fairly early Sunday morning and made my way to the park.
I rushed to find a good spot in the park with an open horizon and came across a boat launch area that wasn’t very busy. It gave me plenty of room to park my car in such a way that I could operate out of the back while still having a good view of the sky. From there, I got on the 1430z and 1608z AO-123 passes, where I made nine and five contacts, respectively. This was one of those frustrating situations where I was so close to making all ten contacts on the first pass—there was at least one more person I tried to complete a contact with, but we couldn’t make it happen—and then had to wait an extra hour to get on the next pass. Oh well!
As I was finishing up my second pass, a park ranger drove up and waited for me to get off the radio. I walked over and said hello, and he asked if I was using an Arrow Antenna. Apparently, he had come across it online before, but he was not a ham and didn’t really know much about ham radio. It was a nice opportunity to evangelize about the hobby and talk about how much I enjoy being able to come to the parks and get on the radio.
I always worry with ham radio sometimes looking a little sketchy and intrusive in these parks, it could eventually lead to the activity being restricted in the future. I try to be respectful and make it clear how grateful I am to be able to enjoy my hobby at these public facilities. I have always had great experiences at Kansas State Parks in this regard, but other public lands in other states have been problematic at times.
After I completed the activation, I took the opportunity to drive around the park a bit and explore. Wow! This park was awesome! It had excellent standard facilities (campgrounds, shower houses, playgrounds, etc.) but also a ton of day-use areas with shelters spread all over the place. It’s a shame this park is so far from home for me, as I would really love to come back and spend a weekend here. It would be a great place for an HF POTA too; I wish I could have stayed and made some more contacts. This is now definitely one of my favorite Kansas parks I’ve been to.