From the wildlife area's website:

Delaware Reservoir was constructed from 1947 to 1950 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for flood control. Most of the 8,301 acres are licensed to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for fish, wildlife, and general recreation purposes. Delaware State Park, on the southwest side of the reservoir, provides camping, picnicking, and boat launching facilities for the hunter and angler. The remaining 6,000 acres, including the 1,330-acre lake, are managed for fish and wildlife and are available for hunting and fishing.

Pictures

The station; photo by Miles McFadden
Eric operating: 1 | 2; photos by Miles McFadden

Description

On Sunday, September 12, 2021, while enroute home from the Findlay Hamfest, two members of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Wyandot Wildlife Area in Ohio as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

Following successful activations of Springville Marsh State Nature Preserve (link) and Wyandot Wildlife Area (link), Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, and Miles McFadden, KD8KNC, performed the activation of Delaware Wildlife Area at a parking area on Ohio Route 229. This was the first CW POTA activation of Delaware Wildlife Area.

Eric and Miles arrived at the empty parking area at 2050 UTC. They deployed the 28½' wire antenna on the 31' Jackite telescoping fiberglass mast and drive-on base and set up the KX3 inside the car. Eric was on the air at 2106 UTC.

Having good cell-signal at the operating location, Eric was able to access POTA Spots (link) to spot himself to to check for park-to-park (P2P) QSO opportunities.

Eric began operations on 80m and his first QSO came at 2112 UTC with his friend K8RAT who was only twenty linear miles away.

Switching to 40m at 2113 UTC, Eric's first QSO there came at 2116 UTC with KZ4KX in Kentucky. QSOs came steadily, with Eric's tenth QSO on 40m coming at 2128 UTC with VA3NQ in Ontario, Canada.

Eric called CQ on 30m for about ten minutes but no QSOs were made on that band.

Switching to 20m at 2139 UTC, Eric made a QSO at 2142 UTC with KI5LKS in Texas.

In all, Eric made twelve QSOs in about thirty-six minutes. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with five watts output.

Miles didn't operate but helped with navigation, helped with set-up and tear-down, and did all of the activation photography.

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