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 KX3 station
Eric's mast and antenna
Dow Lake, with a glaze of ice over the swimming area
Theo-dog
Ginny-dog

Description

On Sunday, February 18, 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.

On a bitterly cold (29°), blustery (16G23) Sunday, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, succeeded in performing a POTA activation of Strouds Run State Park while taking advantage of the ARRL World Wide DX CW Contest to make DX contacts on 15m.

His own car being at the dealership, Eric had his wife's car for this outing, and he was accompanied by their small dogs Theo and Ginny. He and the dogs arrived at the swim-beach area of Strouds Run State Park at 1530 UTC. After parking in an out-of-the way place, Eric walked the dogs and then deployed his 28½' end-fed wire as a vertical on a 31' Jackite telescoping fiberglass mast supported on a drive-on base, placing three 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Setting up his Elecraft KX3 on his wife's car's passenger-side dashboard, Eric was on the air 1545 UTC.

Eric's KX3 station.


Eric's mast and antenna.

Hoping to be able to validate his POTA activation by working only DX stations, and by operating only the 15m band, Eric started at the bottom of the band and worked his way up, answering the stronger DX stations. His first QSO came at 1545 UTC, after just one call, with 8P5A in Barbados. Eric found he was able to work nearly all of the strong stations he called, and his twenty-third and final QSO came at 1644 UTC with OX7AM in Greenland.

In all, Eric made twenty-three QSOs in just about an hour of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at five watts output. As can be seen in his log, nearly all of the stations Eric worked were running 1,000 watts of output power.

Freq	Mode	Date		Time	Exch	Call	Exch		Notes
21001	CW	2/18/2024	1545	599 OH	8P5A	599 KW		Barbados
21003	CW	2/18/2024	1547	599 OH	OM0R	599 KW		Slovakia
21004	CW	2/18/2024	1550	599 OH	DA0BCC	599 KW		Germany
21008	CW	2/18/2024	1552	599 OH	HG7T	599 KW		Hungary
21011	CW	2/18/2024	1555	599 OH	F6KOP	599 500		France
21011	CW	2/18/2024	1557	599 OH	S50R	599 KW		Slovenia
21013	CW	2/18/2024	1558	599 OH	S57Z	599 KW		Slovenia
21014	CW	2/18/2024	1603	599 OH	OL3Z	599 KW		Czech Republic
21016	CW	2/18/2024	1605	599 OH	OH2KW	599 KW		Finland
21017	CW	2/18/2024	1609	599 OH	GF5T	599 100		England
21017	CW	2/18/2024	1611	599 OH	YU5R	599 KW		Serbia
21017	CW	2/18/2024	1613	599 OH	MW4R	599 400		Wales
21021	CW	2/18/2024	1615	599 OH	FY5KE	599 KW		France
21022	CW	2/18/2024	1617	599 OH	HA3DX	599 KW		Hungary
21028	CW	2/18/2024	1623	599 OH	DD2D	599 KW		Germany
21031	CW	2/18/2024	1625	599 OH	SN2M	599 KW		Poland
21034	CW	2/18/2024	1627	599 OH	9A5X	599 KW		Croatia
21035	CW	2/18/2024	1629	599 OH	OE3KAB	599 KW		Austria
21035	CW	2/18/2024	1631	599 OH	CR3W	599 KW		Madiera Island
21004	CW	2/18/2024	1638	599 OH	S50K	599 KW		Slovenia
21005	CW	2/18/2024	1640	599 OH	LZ1PM	599 KW		Bulgaria
21006	CW	2/18/2024	1641	599 OH	OM7M	599 KW		Slovakia
21009	CW	2/18/2024	1644	599 OH	OX7AM	599 KW		Greenland

Dow Lake, with a thin glaze of ice over the swimming area.


Theo-dog, seemingly pondering the mysteries of the universe.


Ginny-dog looking a bit "hang dog", as is her wont.

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)

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