From the Lake Hope State Park website:

Lake Hope State Park offers a truly relaxing, yet rustic getaway from the high speed of modern life. The entire park lies within the Zaleski State Forest in the valley of Big Sandy Run. The park's heavily forested region is marked by steep gorges and narrow ridges with remnants of abandoned mining and iron-producing industries.

The park surrounds the lake and boasts a wooded family campground and a variety of cabins for families and gatherings of all sizes, including the roomy Laurel Lodge. No visit to the park is complete without a stop in the dining lodge for a hearty meal.

From the Zaleski State Forest website:

The 27,822-acre Zaleski State Forest is the second largest forest in Ohio's system of state forests.

Zaleski State Forest operates the only state-owned sawmill in Ohio. The mill produces rough sawn lumber for use by Ohio’s state forests and state parks as well as other government agencies.

Historic Moonville Tunnel is located within Zaleski State Forest on the Moonville Rail Trail right-of-way.

Description

On Sunday, January 16, 2022, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful two-fer activation of Lake Hope State Park and Zaleski State Forest in Ohio as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

Following a visit to the SCARF Hamfest at its new location in Shade, Ohio, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, visited Keeton Cemetery within Lake Hope State Park on a cold, gray, mid-January morning to perform a two-fer activation of Lake Hope State Park and Zaleski State Forest as a winter storm promising significant snowfall approached southeastern Ohio.

Eric arrived at Keeton Cemetery at 1441 UTC and quickly set up his 28½' wire vertical on his Jackite 31' telescoping fiberglass mast and drive-on mount, and set up his KX3 inside his car. Eric was on the air at 1449 UTC.

As at his previous visits to Keeton Cemetery, Eric found he had sufficiently-strong cell-signal to allow him to use the POTA Spots website (link) to spot himself and to look for possible park-to-park (P2P) QSOs.

Eric operated only on 40m and his first QSO came at 1451 UTC with K3KMR in Maryland. QSOs came very quickly, with Eric validating his activation with a tenth QSO in only nine minutes. Eric's twenty-fifth and final QSO came at 1515 UTC with WA5KMA in Texas. During this run, Eric made QSOs with operators in Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, South Carolina, Ontario, Illinois, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas.

In all, Eric made twenty-five QSOs in twenty-six minutes. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at the 5-watt level.

Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program for Lake Hope State Park, KFF-1968.

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