From the Strouds Run State Park website:

Located outside of the city of Athens and within easy driving distance of Ohio University, Strouds Run State Park surrounds Dow Lake and draws a mix of trail and lake users. Miles of hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding provide scenic views from rugged trails. The lake offers boating, paddling, swimming and a shaded campground.

Pictures

Eric's station at dusk

Description

On Thursday, January 11, 2024, 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.

After dropping little dog Ginny off at the groomers, Eric and little dog Theo arrived at the swim-beach area within the state park at about 2025 UTC. Parking his car in the empty parking area, Eric deployed his 28½' wire vertical on his 31' Jackite fiberglass telescoping mast on a drive-on base. While the temperature was unseasonably warm (50°F), it was quite blustery, so Eric deployed his Elecraft KX3 inside his car. Eric was on the air at 2034 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 on 20m. Finding himself a clear frequency to run, Eric began calling "CQ POTA" and manually spotted himself on POTA Spots. Eric's first QSO came at 2037 UTC with AF4OD in Alabama. QSOs came very quickly, with Eric's thirty-sixth QSO coming 2112 UTC with K7SHR in Wyoming. This run included a P2P QSO with K2PQ who was performing a two-fer activation of Cape May Point State Park (K-1610) and New Jersey Coastal State Trail (K-6544) in New Jersey and QSOs with operators located in Alabama (3), Florida (6), Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Idaho, New York, New Hampshire (2), Arkansas, South Dakota, Nevada, Pennsylvania (2), Rhode Island (2), Ontario, New Jersey (3), Minnesota, New Mexico, Virginia, Wisconsin (2), Illinois, Kansas, Oregon, British Columbia, and Wyoming.

Switching to 40m, Eric found a clear frequency to run, began calling CQ, and was auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run came at 2117 UTC with KB3OMJ in Pennsylvania. As had been the case on 20m, QSOs in this run came very quickly, with Eric's thirty-third QSO in this run coming at 2148 UTC with WB4NCT in Alabama. This run included QSOs with operators located in Pennsylvania (5), Maryland, Wisconsin, Virginia (2), Michigan (3), Illinois (2), North Carolina (3), New Hampshire, Indiana, Ohio (2), Minnesota, Connecticut, New Jersey, Ontario (2), Georgia, New York (2), Florida (2), Kentucky, and Alabama.

In all, Eric made sixty-nine QSOs, with two P2P QSOs, in seventy-four minutes of operating time. 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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