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 Wednesday, September 17, 2025, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful bicycle-portable activation of Strouds Run State Park (US-1994) as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.
Taking advantage of a lovely early-Fall afternoon, and being in serious need of some "radio therapy" in addition to a bike ride, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, performed his operation at Bulldog Shelter within Strouds Run State Park after bicycling from his office's parking lot on the west side of Athens, Ohio.
"Welcome to Strouds Run State Park".
Arriving at Bulldog Shelter on the edge of Dow Lake at about 1730 UTC, Eric found the picnic shelter to be unoccupied. Selecting a suitable picnic table, he placed his Elecraft KX2 on the picnic table and deployed his Tufteln (link) 9:1 EFRW as a 58' sloper up to the top of a Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast strapped vertically to his bicycle, placing three 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Eric was on the air at 1758 UTC.
Eric's bicycle-supported mast and 58' antenna.
Eric's KX2 station.
As expected, Eric had cell-signal at Bulldog Shelter and he would be able to access POTA Spots to spot himself and to find Park-to-Park (P2P) QSO opportunities.
Eric started his operation on 20m. Finding himself a clear frequency to run, he began to call "CQ POTA" and was quickly auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 1803 UTC with K5DGR who was performing a POTA activation of Gunnison National Forest (US-4402) in Colorado. QSOs came steadily, if not quickly, with his tenth QSO coming at 1821 UTC with WA1VEI who was operating mobile in Massachusetts. This run included the QSOs with operators located in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Massachusetts (3), Mississippi, Texas (2), and Vermont.
Having achieved a valid activation by making ten QSOs, Eric switched to "hunter mode" and looked for P2P QSOs. However, none of the activators he could hear, could hear him.
Returning to running a frequency on 20m, Eric's first QSO in this run came at 1830 UTC with WA5DSS in Texas. QSOs came quickly this time, with Eric's second QSO in this run coming at 1830 UTC with W8HAP in Maine. This was followed at 1831 UTC by a QSO with KF0GE in Missouri. Eric's final QSO in this run came at 1832 UTC with W1PQO in Maine.
Eric finished his operation with another attempt to hunt P2P QSOs, and at 1838 UTC he completed a P2P QSO with WG0Y who was activating San Luis Lakes State Wildlife Area (US-1239) in Colorado.
In all, Eric made fifteen QSOs, including two P2P QSOs, in just about thirty-five minutes of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at five watts output.
After taking some more photos, Eric re-packed his bicycle and began his ride back to his car.
Dow Lake: looking north...
... and looking south.
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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