I wasn’t intending to activate a park today. Being New Years Day, I woke up pretty late. I saw KE8UTX and KE8QJV from the Black Swamp ARC pop up on my HamAlert, so I brewed some coffee and hunted them.

The 20m band was really iffy at 18:50Z in MD. I can usually hear Ohio pretty well from Maryland, but they gave me a 53.

As I was sipping my coffee, I wondered if there was an award for working parks on News Year Day. In fact there is the New Year award for activating and/or hunting on the first week of the year. I just earned the hunter New Year award by hunting the Black Swamp folks, but I also wanted to get the award for activating.

I have until the 7th to get to a park. So, I looked at the forecast and, at 29F and 32F on Saturday and Sunday, it was looking like a rough weekend for POTA in Maryland. Also, with me returning to work tomorrow, today was the only chance I had at getting the New Year award for activating.

A high of 45F didn’t look too bad. I could put on my down jacket, and cover my extremities in wool and I should be good.

So, the question was, where should I go to do this activation? Should I attempt a new park or go to an old favorite? It was around 15:00-5 when I got packed up to head out. With the sun setting at about 17:00-5, I had to pick somewhere close in order to have enough time to set up and collect QSOs.

Most parks are at least 30 minutes from me. I didn’t want a repeat of US-0705 and be rushed to activate. The two closest parks are Seneca Creek State Park and Matthew Henson State Park.

Matthew Henson is basically just a walking trail. There’s one picnic table along the trail. It is also about 25 minutes away. Ol Matty Hanson isn’t really calling out to me.

Seneca Creek is much closer. It is only 15 minutes from me. I have a fondness for Seneca Creek because it was my first activation back in April 2024. I was still a tech back then, and I activated it on 10m as KC3YQI.

I really like Seneca Creek. It is absolutely full of trees for a wire antenna. There is a reason why it was used as the setting of the Black Hill Forest in The Blair Witch. It is very dense with trees.

I have been avoiding Seneca Creek because during the warmer months, it is packed full of picnickers. Finding a free table can be challenging. This is not true in the Winter. I had the entire park to myself. It was almost spooky.

I got set up pretty quickly. I threw the weight up in the tree, tied it off in my usual “good enough” fashion, and found a clear frequency.

I thought to myself, “wow the noise floor is so low right now!”. I called CQ, and heard someone respond. They were so quiet. I turned on the RF preamp to see if I could hear them better. It was no better. They were too quiet, so I passed and called CQ again, and again, and again. Nothing. What is going on? I looked behind me.

Whoops, my good enough wasn’t good enough in 26 mph winds. I ran it back up the tree and as the wire got higher, I could hear the radio’s noise floor get louder and louder. I must have had the AF gain up high because the static was blasting me from 40 feet away.

Now that the antenna was up in the air, the contacts started flowing. I intended to stay until the park closed at 17:00-5, but what I failed to look at when checking the weather was the wind chill.

It may had been 44F according to the thermometer, but with 26mph winds and 46% humidity, it felt like 30F. I lasted 15 minutes and 21 QSOs before my legs and hands were aching from the cold. I’ll need to get some windbreaking pants and gloves to block the wind from getting through.

I was happy to return to Seneca Creek State Park. Of the parks I’ve activated this year, I think it is probably my favorite place to activate from.

US-7730 McKee-Breshers WMA was a cool place to activate from the bank of the Potomac River. Harpers Ferry was a very memorable park to activate.

Although those were noteworthy, Seneca Creek State Park’s accessibility and proximity to my house makes it one I should return to often.

Happy New Years from Seneca Creek and 73. Here’s to a memorable 2025 for radio!