Description
On Sunday, July 16, 2023, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Lake Logan State Park in Ohio as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.
While on his way to Granville to help his parents downsize, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, stopped at the fishing peninsula on the east shore of Lake Logan to perform a quick activation. Eric was accompanied by his little dog Theo.
Arriving at the fishing peninsula at about 1420 UTC, Eric found several groups at the location, fishing
or picnicking. Eric selected an out-of-the-way place to park and deployed his 28½' wire vertical
on his 31' Jackite telescoping fiberglass mast on a drive-on base. Discovering that he had forgotten
to bring his folding camp-chair, he resorted to operating inside the car, with all the windows and one
door open. Mounting his Elecraft KX3 on the passenger-side dash-mount, Eric was on the air at 1435 UTC.
As at his previous activations of this park, Eric had good cell-signal at this location, and he would be able able to spot himself on POTA Spots (link) and to use POTA Spots to identify possible park-to-park (P2P) QSO opportunities.
Eric began his operation on 20m. Finding himself a frequency, Eric began calling CQ and self-spotted
himself on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run was a P2P QSO which came at 1438 UTC with VE6LK, Vince,
who was performing an activation at Chain Lakes Provincial Park (VE-1168) in Alberta, Canada. QSOs came
quickly, with Eric's eleventh QSO coming at 1447 UTC with AC0DK in Wisconsin. This run included QSOs
with operators located in Alberta, Arkansas, Wisconsin (3), Missouri, Washington, Georgia,
Idaho, Texas, and Puerto Rico.
Immediately upon switching to 40m, Eric found KE8UEX performing an activation of Island Lake State Recreation Area (K-3315) in Michigan and at 1452 UTC Eric completed a P2P QSO with him.
Finding his own frequency to run on 40m, Eric began calling CQ and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots.
His first QSO in this run came at 1454 UTC with AK9A in Wisconsin. Noticing QRM from digital operations
on the frequency, Eric shifted his frequency, re-spotted himself, and began calling CQ. His first
QSO on the new frequency came at 1457 UTC with N5FY, Joshua of Tufteln (link),
in Georgia. (Eric had worked Joshua on 20m, too.) As had been the case on 20m, QSOs came quickly, with
Eric's twelfth QSO in this run coming at 1508 UTC with WA4RCW in Tennessee. This run included QSOs with
operators located in Wisconsin, Georgia, Indiana (3), Pennsylvania, Ontario, North Carolina (2),
Kentucky, New York, and Tennessee.
In all, Eric made twenty-four QSOs, including two P2P QSOs, in just about thirty-three minutes of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with five watts output.
Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program.
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