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.

Winter Field Day 2022

Pictures

Eric's station

Description

On Sunday, January 30, 2022, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team participated in Winter Field Day (link)while performing 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.

Having spent most of Saturday participating in the Athens County Amateur Radio Association (ACARA) Winter Field Day (WFD) effort at the Jim Crouse Memorial Radio Station at the Red Cross of Southeastern Ohio, operating as W8UKE in class "1H" (one transmitter, home), Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, returned to Keeton Cemetery within Lake Hope State Park on a cold but clear January morning to participate in his own Winter Field Day effort and to perform a two-fer activation of Lake Hope State Park and Zaleski State Forest. This was Eric's 20th activation of Lake Hope State Park (K-1968) and his 21st activation of Zaleski State Forest (K-5455), earning him the POTA Oasis Repeat Offender Award for Lake Hope State Park. For this WFD effort, operating under his own callsign, Eric participated in WFD in class "1O" (one transmitter, outdoors).

After a brisk drive on the unplowed Irish Ridge, a former pro-rally special stage road, to see how well his snow-tire-equipped Honda Fit performed, Eric arrived at Keeton Cemetery at 1507 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 1515 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. Having decided to perform this operation as a straight WFD effort, Eric didn't spot himself on POTA Spots or consult POTA Spots for P2P QSO opportunities.

Finding a frequency to run on 40m, Eric's first QSO came almost immediately, at 1518 UTC, with K9NN in Indiana. Despite running only 5w into a compromise field antenna, Eric was able to successfully run the frequency and QSOs came quickly, with his fifteenth QSO coming at 1530 UTC with N9UNX, who was also in Indiana. This run included QSOs with stations in Indiana (2), Illinois (3), New Jersey, Georgia (2), Virginia (2), Maryland/DC, Michigan (2), and Ohio.

Finding a frequency to run on 20m, Eric made a QSO at 1542 UTC with W7SW in Arizona.

Since band/mode is a multiplier in WFD, Eric went to 15m and used hunt-and-pounce to work three stations in France participating in the REF Contest. Eric worked F5UQE in Department 59 at 1543 UTC, F5PHY in Department 24 at 1445 UTC, and TM5G in Department 44 at 1546 UTC, guessing correctly that these stations needed a serial number from him. Eric logged these stations for his WFD submission as "1H DX".

Returning to 20m to run, Eric made a QSO at 1553 UTC with K2RB in Connecticut.

With hopes of gaining more multipliers, Eric checked 80m and 10m but no signals were heard and no QSOs were made.

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

Eric's calculated score, including 500-point bonuses for emergency power, operating outdoors, and operating "not at home", was 2,140 points.

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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