Poinsett State Park & Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens - Midlands South Carolina Road Trip Radio Report; 9/10 November 2025

I took an overnight road trip to Midlands South Carolina on Sunday, 9 November and Monday, 10 November 2025 to visit Poinsett State Park in Wedgefield and Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens in Columbia. The trip up was via I-95 and the trip back to Savannah was on US-321, providing two different levels of activity on amateur radio and scanning. Both days were beautiful and especially on Monday, I enjoyed the colors of the Autumn foliage; we don't get quite as much color at home on the coast. Due to the Federal holiday on Tuesday, there was very little military communications to monitor, public safety in the Columbia area was busy as always, and the railroads around Columbia were active as well. There wasn't much Federal communications activity either, although I was surprised to hear the Fort Sumter NHS talkgroup on the Palmetto 800 system active during the Federal Government shutdown. While visiting the Zoo, I enjoyed listening to their radio system. On amateur radio, I had fun doing a Parks on the Air (POTA) activation at Poinsett State Park and listening to 2 Meter/70 cm repeaters along my route of travel. 

Autumn foliage at Poinsett State Park

Coastal Georgia Military Monitoring Recap; October 2025

October was a month to be forgotten. Some issues significantly reduced the amount of radio time I had in the second half of the month, so I didn't get to listen as much as I usually do. The biggest item of note for the month is that 113th Wing/121st Fighter Squadron, Washington DC Air National Guard F-16s are visiting Savannah at the Savannah Combat Readiness Training Center/Air Dominance Center. VMFA-533 at MCAS Beaufort had been away for a while and they returned home at the end of the month. The 20th Fighter Wing/79th Fighter Squadron returned to Shaw AFB recently and they began flying in earnest again throughout October. 

Two 113th Wing/121st FW F-16s (86-0356 & 87-0314) on the deck at the Savannah CRTC/ADC