This morning, I did a Parks On The Air (POTA) and World Wide Flora and Fauna (WWFF) activation of Adams Homestead and Nature Preserve,  a state park in North Sioux City, South Dakota.  I was returning home after presenting a Continuing Legal Education program in neighboring Sioux City, Iowa,  The most direct route home would have kept me in Iowa, but I couldn’t resist adding a few miles to my drive and activating a park in the “rare” state of South Dakota.

The 1500-acre park along the Missouri River contains about 10 miles of trails, as well as an archery range.  It also features a number of historic buildings, including the original homestead, other cabins, a church and a school.  Admission is free.   Most of the buildings and visitor center are closed on weekends, but the grounds are fully accessible.

I started on 15 meters, which sounded relatively quiet, so I quickly switched to 20 meters.  FT8 results weren’t very promising, with only one QSO.

Since CW gets through no matter what, I switched to 20 CW, where I made 20 contacts over the course of an hour.  My best DX was NL7V in Alaska, who pulled my QRP signal out of the noise and gave me a 229 report.  I made a number of Park-to-Park (P2P) contacts, including KD8DEU, who was coincidentally just down the Missouri River from me at Blanchette Landing Access State Conservation Area in Missouri.

I was operating from my car, with my zBitX, with a Hamstick on the car.  As you can see from the maps below, I was getting out on both FT8 and CW.  The FT8 map from PSK Reporter has fewer spots than I would have expected, whereas the CW map from Reverse Beacon Network is pretty typical.

FT8 Signal Reports from PSK Reporter

CW Spots from ReverseBeacon.net.