by William Eric McFadden

From the Strouds Run State Park website:

Boats with a 10-hp limit are permitted on 161-acre Dow Lake. There is a launch ramp located at the northeastern edge of the lake with 3 tie-up stakes and a seasonal kayak rack with rentable storage (through state park). The Strouds Run Boathouse offers canoes, kayaks, paddleboards, pedal boats, and pontoon boats for rent in Spring, Summer, and Fall.

Pictures

Description

Eric's station On Saturday, January 21, 2023, 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.

Having made himself a goal of earning in 2023 the Bear Cave Repeat Offender Activator Award by performing sixty activations of the park, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, visited the swim-beach at Strouds Run State Park on an overcast and cold (35°) day to perform his 44th activation of the park. Eric was accompanied by his small dog, Theo.

Eric and Theo arrived at the swim-beach at 1600 UTC. After walking Theo and taking some photos, Eric deployed his 28½' wire vertical on his 31' Jackite fiberglass telescoping mast on his drive-on base and deployed his Elecraft KX3 inside his car. Eric was on the air at 1612 UTC.

As expected, Eric found he had good cell-signal at this location and he would be able to spot himself on the POTA Spots website and to use POTA Spots to identify possible Park-to-Park (P2P) QSOs.

Eric began his operation by hunting for P2P QSOs, and after seeing how many CW activators were on the air, he decided to try to validate his activation by making his first ten QSOs be P2P QSOs. It took him almost forty-five minutes to do it, but Eric did succeed in making ten P2P QSOs, two of which he later learned were two-fers:

1.1615 17m K4NYM FL K-3627, General James A. Van Fleet State Trail

+ K-4646, Withlacoochee State Forest
2.1618 15m K4QD FL K-8347, Fellsmere Water Management Area State Conservation Area
3.1621 20m KT4RC AZ K-4571, Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail
4.1624 20m K4SWL NC K-2753, South Mountains State Park
5.1628 20m N2DGQ NJ K-1631, Stephens State Park
6.1632 20m KX4BE TN K-9718, Savage Gulf State Park
7.1639 17m NP4E PR K-9722, Silvestre del Embalse La Plata Wildlife Refuge
8.1644 15m K0TTW CO K-1210, Boyd Lake State Park
9.1651 20m W2SCT NY K-2132, Rockland Lake State Park
10.1655 20m W2AEW NJ K-1611, Cheesequake State Park

+ K-6544, New Jersey Coastal State Trail

Feeling pleased that he had succeeded in validating his activation using only P2P QSOs, Eric found himself a frequency to run on 20m, began calling CQ, and was quickly auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run came at 1701 UTC with stalwart hunter K9IS in Wisconsin. QSOs came quickly, with Eric's eleventh QSO in this run coming at 1711 UTC with W8NWG in Illinois. This run included QSOs with operators located in Wisconsin, Illinois (2), New Hampshire, Florida, Indiana, Texas, South Carolina, Tennessee (2), and New Jersey.

Canoes
Canoes

Sinking Pedal Boats
A sign of a hard winter? Sinking Pedal Boats

Dow Lake with Geese
Dow Lake, with Canada Geese

In all, Eric made twenty-one QSOs, including ten P2P QSOs, in seventy-one minutes of operating time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at five watts output.

Christmas Trees?
Christmas Trees?
Piled-up Christmas Trees—are these to become habitat for fish?

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.

(return)