K-3228

Maryhill State Park

I had actually tried to activate this park in August, but failed due to gear problems. After a failed attempt to active the Goldendale Observatory State Park, I went 10 miles down the hill to this park, where I met my brother for a weekend of camping. I set up my antenna intending to operate, but it wouldn’t tune and I failed to discover the reason why. It turned out to be a simple loose connection on my homemade ground spike that holds a whip antenna, but I didn’t see that until I got home. Two months later, I was again on my way to visit Jack at his home in Portland, and stopped along the way to give Maryhill another shot.

Maryhill State Park lies on the banks of the Columbia River and is roughly divided into two areas. The downstream part is for overnight camping and has RV and tent sites. It’s a decent set up for overnight camping, the only drawback being that you’ll hear trains from the Washington side and freeway noise from the Oregon side all night. The upstream part is for day use and there are picnic tables, a few covered areas, large grassy areas, and public restrooms. You need either a day pass or a Washington Discover Pass to use the park. Cell service is dodgy here, at least for T-Mobile customers, but I was able to spot myself and use the POTA app well enough.

This late in the season, there were few other people in the park when I arrived. I found a suitable picnic table facing the river. There is a daily irrigation schedule in the park, and all picnic tables have signs telling you when you can expect to get wet. I doubted they were still watering in late October, but I made sure to find a table where the sprinklers wouldn’t be scheduled in case I was wrong about that. I got my spike in the ground, antenna up and radials out, and after a quick tune I was on the air.

This time, I remembered to start off by searching for any P2P possibilities. In 10 minutes, I was able to log 3, and then I got down to calling CQ. I didn’t get the instant pileup I’d had at Sacajawea but breezed past my 10 QSO minimum easily. The weather was cool and threatening rain, and I was due in Portland in a couple of hours, so I contented myself with a good outing and packed up.

One lesson learned for future activations is that I should spend a few more minutes looking for P2Ps before going QRT.