by William Eric McFadden
From the Strouds Run State Park website:
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Located outside of the city of Athens and within easy driving distance of Ohio University, Strouds Run State Park surrounds Dow Lake and draws a mix of trail and lake users. Miles of hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding provide scenic views from rugged trails. The lake offers boating, paddling, swimming and a shaded campground.
Pictures
Description
On Monday, December 2, 2024, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Strouds Run State Park (US-1994) as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.
After dropping little Ginny-dog off for a grooming appointment, and having about ninety minutes before he had to pick her up, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, went to nearby Strouds Run State Park's Bulldog Shelter to perform a quick activation. Eric was accompanied by little Theo-dog.
Eric arrived at Bulldog Shelter at 1715 UTC and, because of the of the cold, overcast weather conditions, decided to operate in his car. Eric quickly deployed his 28½' end-fed wire as a vertical supported on a Jackite 31' telescoping fiberglass mast in a drive-on base and placed three 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Wanting to perform this activation with an old friend, Eric mounted his Elecraft KX3 on the car's dashboard and was on the air at 1725 UTC.
Eric's antenna and KX3 station.
As he had expected, Eric had good cell-signal at this location and was able to access POTA Spots to spot himself, if necessary, and to find Park-to-Park (P2P) QSO opportunities.
Eric began his operation on 20m, finding himself a clear frequency to run, calling "CQ POTA", and self-spotting himself on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 1727 UTC with KM4QNA in Alabama. QSOs came very quickly, with his twenty-seventh QSO coming at 1753 UTC with W9DP in Illinois. This run included QSOs with operators located in Alabama (2), Massachusetts (2), Texas (3), Ontario, Kansas, British Columbia, Tennessee, Missouri (2), Delaware, Florida (3), Michigan, Idaho, North Carolina (2), Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Oklahoma, and Illinois.
When activity on 20m died down, Eric found himself a clear frequency to run on 40m, began calling "CQ POTA", and was quickly auto-spotted to POTA Spots. However, no QSOs came on 40m, despite several minutes of calling CQ.
Eric completed his activation by hunting for P2P QSOs and succeeded in making three P2P QSOs on 20m. At 1801 UTC, he had a QSO with AB9CA at Elephant Butte Lake State Park (US-2697) in New Mexico. At 1805 UTC, he had a QSO with N0ANE at Minneopa State Park (US-2510) in Minnesota. Finally, at 1808 UTC, he had a QSO with W2NR at Temple Mountain State Reservation State Natural Reserve (US-11848) in New Hampshire.
In all, Eric made thirty QSOs, including three P2P QSOs. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with a transmitter output of five watts.
Dow Lake under a cloudy sky.
Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program for an operation at Strouds Run State Park, KFF-1994.
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