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

Aviation/MilCom

As I mentioned in opening, it was the weekend before Veterans Day, so there wasn't much MilCom activity to be heard on Sunday or Monday before the Federal Holiday. I didn't hear any military flights during the trip, but I did hear some traffic on the Shaw AFB site of the USAF 57C TRS and the Fort Jackson sites of the US Army TRS. There was plenty of commercial and general aviation traffic on the VHF airband, especially at Columbia Metropolitan Airport (my hotel wasn't very far away). 

MCAS Beaufort

125.125 - Beaufort Approach/Departure   

123.700 - Beaufort Approach/Departure    

Joint Base Charleston

120.700 - Charleston TRACON

Columbia Metropolitan/McEntire JNGB/Shaw AFB/Fort Jackson

119.500 - Columbia Metropolitan Tower

257.800 - Columbia Metropolitan Tower

124.150 - Columbia TRACON

133.400 - Columbia TRACON

USAF 57C TRS (Shaw AFB site)

 TG 5765 - Shaw AFB FD

US Army TRS (Fort Jackson sites)

 TG 737 - Fort Jackson Range Control

 TG 780 - Fort Jackson Buses/Transportation

 TG 784 - Fort Jackson Motor Pool

Jacksonville ARTCC

124.075 - Summerville High

124.700 - Columbia Low

126.125 - Statesboro High

127.875 - Aiken High

132.425 - Hunter Ultra High

132.925 - Allendale/Savannah Low

133.450 - Florence Low

133.625 - Georgetown High

134.375 - Charleston Low

134.975 - Ridgeway Ultra High

Atlanta ARTCC

123.950 - Sinca Low

126.425 - Dublin High

128.100 - Augusta Low

After leaving Poinsett State Park on Saturday afternoon, I drove by nearby Poinsett Range, which is used for training by Shaw AFB and McEntire JNGB F-16s and took a photo of their sign flanked by two training bombs. When I passed by McEntire JNGB on the drive to Columbia, I stopped and took some photos of their gate guard aircraft.

Poinsett Range Sign

F-16 gate guard at McEntire JNGB representing the 169th Fighter Wing

AH-64 gate guard at McEntire JNGB representing the 151st Aviation Regiment

Public Safety

Midlands South Carolina apparently hasn't seen much more rain than we have down in Georgia; on Monday I heard several brush fire calls due to the dry and windy conditions. There was also the usual plethora of motor vehicle crashes in the Columbia area that kept the Fire Department talkgroups on the Palmetto 800 system busy. Almost all of the public safety communications I listened to were on the Palmetto 800 system; exceptions were Aiken County FD, Bamberg County FD, and Barnwell County FD, and Fairfield County FD. South Carolina Forestry Commission remains on VHF repeaters as well. 

159.2475 (DCS 115) - SCFC Okatie

159.3300 (DCS 271) - SCFC Lake Murray

462.6625 (DCS 023) - Aiken County FD Fireground 5

154.3700 (PL 162.2) - Bamberg County FD Dispatch

154.4000 (PL 118.8) - Barnwell County FD Dispatch

Palmetto 800

 TG 20565 - Aiken County EMS Ch 1 Dispatch

 TG 704 - Beaufort County FD Dispatch 1

 TG 22528 - Calhoun County FD Dispatch

 TG 22530 - Calhoun County FD Ops 1

 TG 22531 - Calhoun County FD Ops 2

 TG 23041 - Clarendon County FD Dispatch

 TG 4165 - Dorchester County FD Dispatch

 TG 32065 - Hampton County FD

 TG 6541 - Jasper County FD Dispatch

 TG 6542 - Jasper County FD Tac 1

 TG 23541 - Kershaw County FD Dispatch

 TG 23543 - Kershaw County FD Ops 2

 TG 23881 - Camden FD (Kershaw Co)

 TG 23955 - Kershaw County EMS Ops 3

 TG 24041 - Lee County FD/EMS Dispatch

 TG 24542 - Lexington County FS Dispatch

 TG 24531 - Lexington County FS Ops 1

 TG 24532 - Lexington County FS Ops 2

 TG 24536 - Lexington County FS Ops 6

 TG 24566 - Lexington County EMS Dispatch

 TG 24568 - Lexington County EMS Logistics

 TG 25053 - Orangeburg County FD Dispatch

 TG 25057 - Orangeburg County FD Page

 TG 25552 - Columbia FD Dispatch (Richland Co)

 TG 25553 - Columbia FD Ops 1 (Richland Co)

 TG 25554 - Columbia FD Ops 2 (Richland Co)

 TG 25556 - Columbia FD Ops 4 (Richland Co)

 TG 25557 - Columbia FD Ops 5 (Richland Co)

 TG 24665 - Columbia Airport FD (Richland Co)

 TG 25565 - Richland County EMS 1 Dispatch

 TG 25566 - Richland County EMS 2 Med

 TG 26101 - Sumter County FD 1

 TG 26151 - Sumter County EMS Dispatch

 TG 20020 - SC Mutual Aid 10

 TG 28102 - SC EMD Ops 1

 TG 40010 - SC Regional Government 2

 TG 10392 - Meducare

 TG 28609 - SC LifeNet (Medevac Helicopter dispatch)

 TG 51704 - MedTrans SC (Medevac Helicopter dispatch)

 TG 1822 - Fort Sumter NHP (Charleston)

FleetTalk Carolinas

 TG 451 - Fairfield County FD

My portable setup in the hotel room: Anytone 878 for 2 Meter/70cm amateur radio, Uniden SDS100 and BCD436HP, my regular laptop, and a small reconditioned Dell running an Airspy R2 SDR

Railroad

There wasn't much railroad activity to hear during the trip northbound on I-95 on Sunday morning, but things picked up once I made it to Columbia on Sunday afternoon. Much of US-321 south of Columbia roughly parallels railroad tracks, so I could also hear railroad communications on the drive home.

CSX

 160.4100 - AAR 20, CSX Dispatch (Some PL 250.3) (Columbia)

 161.3700 - AAR 84, CSX CN&L Subdivision Dispatch (Some PL 250.3) (Columbia)

 161.5200 - AAR 94, CSX Dispatch (Some PL 250.3) (Columbia)

 160.5900 - AAR 32, CSX Road (Some PL 250.3) (Columbia)

 161.1000 - AAR 66, CSX Road (Some PL 250.3) (Columbia)

Norfolk Southern

 161.4600 - AAR 90, Norfolk Southern Dispatch

 160.6050 - AAR-33, Norfolk Southern Road 

Amateur Radio and Poinsett State Park

I listened to 2 Meter and 70cm repeaters (analog FM and DMR) while during the road trip and was surprised things weren't dead quiet. On this trip, I added Barnwell repeaters to my mobile codeplug and discovered that the 147.0300 FM and 440.6875 DMR repeaters in Barnwell offer good coverage along US-321 between Denmark and Fairfax. On previous trips, I hadn't thought that they would work in the area, but I was pleasantly surprised to find they did. On Saturday afternoon, I did a POTA activation from Poinsett State Park. I set up the portable HF station on a picnic table under some trees next to the park's mill pond and worked 31 stations, including some park-to-park contacts on 20 Meters. Band conditions on 20 Meters were decent, but I did have to deal with some QSB (fading). I checked 10 Meters as well, and while it sounded like the band was trying to open up I didn't have any success. 

145.1300- (PL 88.5) - Beaufort 

145.4500- (PL 123.0) - Charleston (MUSC)

145.4900- (PL 103.5) - Moncks Corner

146.6250- (DCS 315) - Little Mountain

146.6700- (PL 156.7) - St. Matthews

146.7150- (PL 91.5) - Columbia (SCHearts)

146.9100- (PL 156.7) - Whitehall

146.9400- (PL 123.0) - Knightsville

147.0000+ (PL 123.0) - Lexington

147.0150+ (PL 156.7) - Sumter

147.0300+ (PL 156.7) - Barnwell

147.0600+ (PL 123.0) - Hardeeville

147.1050+ (PL 123.0) - Charleston (SCHeart)

147.2100+ (PL 156.7) - Little Mountain (SCHearts)

147.2250+ (PL 123.0) - Leesville

147.2400+ (PL 100.0) - Hilton Head

147.3300+ (PL 156.7) - Columbia

147.3450+ (PL 141.3) - Adams Run

440.6125+ (DMR CC1) - Columbia Downtown (PRN)

440.6875+ (DMR CC1) - Barnwell (PRN)

441.7250+ (PL 91.5) - Columbia, SC (SCHearts)

442.6750+ (PL 100.0) - Bluffton

442.8750+ (DCS 315) - Columbia

443.6500+ (DCS 315) - Blythewood 

443.8750+ ((DCS 315) - Little Mountain

462.7250+ (DCS 723) - GMRS Columbia

Chelegance MC-750 portable HF antenna in the foreground, portable HF station on the picnic table in the background

Keeping it simple: Yaesu FT-891 powered by a LiFePo battery. I use a notepad for logging so I don't have to worry a computer and internet connections for computer logging. There's less to lug around.

The mill pond at Poinsett State Park that I was operating next to - it was a beautiful day!

Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens

Before heading back to Savannah on Monday, I visited Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens in Columbia. While a bit windy, it was another beautiful Autumn day, just right for walking around the Zoo. They don't have any lions right now because their male died last year and their females have been moved to another Zoo, but they are getting two males next month. I finally lucked out and caught a koala awake! Whenever I visit, they're usually asleep, so it was a treat getting to see one with its eyes open. I arrived right at opening, so it was breakfast time for some of the animals, including the rhinos and gorillas. Just before leaving, I took in one of the sea lion training sessions; it's always fun to watch the interaction between the sea lions and their keepers.

Gifford Rosenwald School

On the way home, I stopped at the Rosenwald School in Gifford (Hampton County) to see how the restoration project is going. Since the last time I stopped by, it's obvious that they're progressed on the exterior. It looks like the outside walls have been repaired and it's definitely received a new coat of paint. It was built in 1920-1921, and was one of 500 schools built for African-American students in rural South Carolina. It operated until 1958, averaging 200 students a year. For more information on the Gifford Rosenwald School, see its listing on the South Carolina Historic Properties Record website.

The Rosenwald School in Gifford, SC - built in 1920/1921

Food

No road trip is complete with good food. My favorite meal on this trip was the pork fajitas at La Cienega Mexican Grill and Seafood in West Columbia on Saturday evening. I don't know how the pork was cooked, but it was absolutely delicious and fell apart with the fork and the tomatoes with it had a slightly sweet flavor that really complemented the peppers and onions. As always when I visit Riverbanks Zoo, I had lunch at East Bay Deli in West Columbia. This time I had the Greek salad with gyro meat - a great diabetic friendly meal before heading home.

Pork fajitas at El Cinega Mexican Grill and Seafood

Greek salad at East Bay Deli