by William Eric McFadden
From the Strouds Run State Park website:
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Strouds Run State Park is located in the scenic forested hills of Athens County, in the midst of the unglaciated Appalachian Plateau. Although untouched by the vast ice sheets that moved across portions of the state over 12,000 years ago, Strouds Run displays the effects of the glaciers -- in the deep ravines and high hills -- where the valleys served as outlets for torrents of glacial meltwaters. The erosive power of these waters carved the valleys and hillsides, creating the familiar topography Ohioans know today. Large deposits of glacial outwash, primarily sand and gravel, were deposited along these streams and strongly affected the type of biological communities present today.
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Description
On Sunday, December 11, 2022, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Strouds Run State Park (K-1994) as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.
On an a cool, mostly-overcast December morning, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, visited Bulldog Shelter within Strouds Run State Park for a second 100% 10m POTA activation of the park while simultaneously participating in the ARRL 10-Meter Contest.
Following a successful 100% 10m POTA activation of the park the previous day (link), Eric decided to attempt a second such activation of Strouds Run State Park on the second day of the ARRL 10-Meter Contest. Eric returned to Bulldog Shelter, arriving at about 1545 UTC, parked his car at one end of the parking lot, and deployed his 28½' wire vertical on his 31' Jackite fiberglass telescoping mast on his drive-on base. He deployed his Elecraft KX3 and N1MM Logger+ logging/duping PC inside his car. Eric was on the air at 1558 UTC.
As at the previous day's activation, Eric operated only in hunt-and-pounce mode. His first QSO came at 1601 UTC with W7VJ in Washington. As he had found the previous day at home and while afield at the park, Eric could hear many strong stateside stations participating in the contest but fewer DX stations, with few of the DX stations being able to hear his signal. In addition, many of the stronger stations were stations he had already worked the previous day. Over the period of about seventy-eight minutes, Eric completed twenty QSOs and worked stations located in the DX countries of Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic, and French Guiana; the Canadian province of Alberta (3), British Columbia, Saskatchewan; and the U.S. states of California (3), Colorado (4), Oregon (2), and Washington (2).
In all, Eric made twenty QSOs at Strouds Run State Park. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at five watts output.
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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