St. Louis Arch POTA Activation

The St. Louis Arch is an iconic landmark, but the park surrounding it is equally impressive. The grounds offer a great view of the horizon over the Mississippi River and contains two ponds, a large grassy area under the Arch and some tree-covered areas throughout the park. There are bathrooms, a museum and of course a ride to the top of the Arch in the visitor center in the middle of the park between the legs of the Arch. A bridge over Highway 44 connects the park to the riverfront and a historic cathedral. Parking can be challenging, but when the area is less busy you can usually find a spot that’s close and either free or reasonable.

The Gateway Arch National Park US-0779 was my second activation, after the Ulyssys S Grant National Historic Site. The POTA website recommends calling park staff the first time. Since I was still getting an idea of how park staff would react to amateur radio operators that seemed like a good idea. The person I talked to was vaguely familiar with parks on the air but didn’t seem too interested in what I was doing. He did give me some good info about how busy the park would be and what parts of the park were generally less busy.

When we arrived on a Sunday morning we walked around a bit looking for a place that had enough space for the antenna and wouldn’t generally be in people’s way. I picked out a little patch of grass at the southern end of the southern pond. It might not have been the best spot since it was under some trees and below the horizon with a hill to the east and the city to the west but it was out of the way and had a nice view of the pond. I set up the MC-750 and my low-band QRP Labs QMX and made 12 QSOs on FT8 in about half an hour.

A few weeks later I visited the park on a warm Friday evening. After walking through the visitor center to get some water and use the bathrooms I found a better place to set up that was higher up with a better view of the horizon while still being out of the way. There’s even a wifi access point on a light pole nearby. I noticed the park staff seemed to drive by every half an hour, so security wasn’t much of a concern. Band conditions were a little challenging so I once again stuck with FT8 and made 11 QSOs in just under an hour on 20 meters.

# Future activations

There are a number of other areas I might consider setting up. There’s a large concrete overlook on the far southeastern edge of the park. The views of the horizon and river are nice and unobstructed. There’s a similar overlook on the other end of the park near Eads Bridge. Setting up directly under the Arch would be interesting but I’m not sure how I’d avoid being in people’s way. Maybe I’d go completely handheld with a whip antenna with something like an Elecraft KH1.