by William Eric McFadden

From the park website:

After the Treaty of Greenville of 1795, the Native American threat in the Ohio territory subsided, clearing the way for settlement. The first geological survey of Ohio revealed that Vinton County was rich in mineral resources. Millstone, coal and iron ore provided the resources for flourishing industries.

The charcoal iron industry spurred growth in this Hanging Rock iron region. From 1818 to the turn of the century, thousands of acres of woodlands were cut to fuel the 46 furnaces in the region. At its peak in the mid-1800s, Ohio was the nation's leading producer of iron for implements and weapons. The millstones quarried along Raccoon Creek helped alleviate the dependence upon imported French and Pennsylvania buhrstone. The Raccoon Creek quarry was only one of eight millstone manufacturers in Ohio in the mid-1800s.

For a time, coal was an important Vinton County export. Its importance has waned in this century but continues to provide a boost to the local economy. The timber industry is the county's most important business today. Vinton County is the least populated and most heavily forested county in the state.

Built in 1903 by the late C.K. Davis, a wealthy coal operator, Lake Alma was originally constructed as an amusement park. The park then boasted a large dance pavilion, outdoor theater, a merry-go-round and several other rides. This attraction prospered only until 1910 and was later purchased by the city of Wellston for a municipal water supply. The city leases the area to the ODNR Division of Parks and Recreation for operation as a state park.

Pictures

Description

On Friday, April 24, 2026, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful bicycle-portable activation of Lake Alma State Park in Ohio as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

While enjoying lovely weather on a day of use-or-lose vacation, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, bicycled the Wellston Bike Path from the old railroad depot in Wellston to Lake Alma State Park. Eric was accompanied by his little dog Theo, who rode in a doggie-trailer behind the bicycle. Eric's wife Vickie and their new dog Gracie drove from Wellston to meet Eric at the state park.

Eric (with Theo) began his ride at the Wellston Depot at 1709 UTC, while Vickie (and Gracie) did a bit of shopping and sightseeing by car in Wellston before turning the car toward the state park. Coincidentally, Eric (and Theo) and Vickie (and Gracie) arrived at the state park at exactly the same time.

Wellston Depot
Wellston Depot
Beginning the ride, at the start of
Wellston Bike Path, at Wellston Depot.

Wellston Water Works
Wellston Water Works, just north of Wellston.

steel truss bridge
Approaching the steel truss bridge over Raccoon Creek.

Lake Alma
Lake Alma, viewed from atop the dam.

Lake Alma State Park sign
"Welcome to Lake Alma State Park".

Lake Alma
Lake Alma, viewed from the park's main entrance.

Lake Alma swim-beach
Looking down onto the swim-beach.

Upon reaching Lake Alma State Park, Eric rode around Lake Alma to the gazebo and found it to be unoccupied. Vickie drove to the dog park within the state park so Gracie could run and explore. (It turned that Gracie is so small that she escaped through the fence and had be be kept leashed afterwards.) At the gazebo, Eric deployed his Tufteln (link) 9:1 EFRW antenna as a 29' sloper up to the top of his Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast experimentally bungied to his doggie-trailer, and he placed two 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Placing his Elecraft KX2 on the gazebo's bench, and hooking up his Whiterook MK-33 paddle and Sony earbuds, Eric was on the air at 1948 UTC.

Eric's mast and antenna
Eric's mast and antenna
Eric's mast and antenna; this was the first time he
had used the doggie-trailer to support an antenna.

the mast bungied to the trailer
Detail: the mast bungied to the doggie-trailer.

Eric's KX2 station
Eric's KX2 station on the gazebo's
circumferential bench; the clipboards,
paddle, and pencil are on Eric's lap.

As he had expected, Eric had good cell-signal within the park, and he would be able to spot himself on POTA Spots (link) and to use POTA Spots to identify possible park-to-park (P2P) QSO opportunities.

Eric began his operation on 20m. After finding himself a clear frequency to run, he began calling "CQ POTA" and was auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 1950 UTC with WB2UJS in Florida. QSOs came steadily, with Eric's eighth QSO coming at 2006 UTC with W5VRX in Texas. This run included QSOs with operators located in Florida (2), Louisiana, Manitobo, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas (2).

Lake Alma
Lake Alma, viewed from Eric's operating
position within the gazebo.

When replies to his calls seemed to stop coming, Eric began a hunt for P2P QSOs. At 2011 UTC, he made a P2P QSO on 20m with K8FC at St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park (US-3659) in Florida. At 2015 UTC, he made a P2P QSO on 20m with WB0RLJ at his "home park" of Chalco Hills State Recreation Area (US-4011) in Nebraska; this was WB0RLJ's 1191st (!) activation of Chalco Hills.

Theo-dog
Theo seems uncertain about the goings-on.

Switching to 40m, Eric found himself a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and was auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run came at 2020 UTC with NA8S in Michigan. QSOs came quickly, with Eric's second QSO in this run coming 2021 UTC with WN3T in Virginia, his third coming at 2023 UTC with KS4S in North Carolina, and his fourth coming at 2024 UTC with KC3UFR in Pennsylvania.

As Eric was finishing his QSO with KC3UFR, a gentleman approached and introduced himself. It was Mike, W8RY, from nearby McArthur, Ohio. Mike explained that he visits Lake Alma nearly every day and would be returning the next day to perform a POTA activation of his own. On this particular occasion, he had seen Eric's callsign license plate at the dog-park, had stopped and had spoken with Vickie, and she had pointed out Eric's location in the gazebo. Mike, now retired, had been an engineer at Ohio Univerity's WOUB transmitter site and, before that, had been a high-speed CW intercept operator for the Air Force stationed at Rhein-Main Air Base in Germany.

After the nice twenty-minute "eyeball QSO" with Mike had concluded, Eric his operation on 40m and at 2047 UTC made a QSO with WB2WGX in New York. Suddenly realizing how late in the day it was, Eric decided to end his operation at this point.

Eric snapped a few more photos, tore down his station, re-packed his bicycle, placed Theo in the doggie-trailer, and began the short ride back to Wellston, stopping at the state park's campground for a potty break. His wife Vickie had seen Eric begin his tear-down, and she gathered up Gracie and began her drive back to Wellston.

Lake Alma
A final snap of Lake Alma, this time overlooking the dog-park.

In all, Eric made fifteen QSOs in just about an hour of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with five watts output.

Eric was pleased with how stable the mast-bungied-to-the-trailer was, even in the somewhat gusty wind the afternoon had brought. As can be seen in the photos, Eric had mounted the trailer's removable stroller-handle backwards to provide an upper bungie-location. Now that he knows the lash-up works, he will try to find a bit of lightweight aluminum or PVC tubing to use in place of the stroller-handle as an upper bungie-location.

After a pleasant ride back to Wellston, Eric found Vickie and Gracie in the parking lot near Wellston Depot. After transferring everything but the bicycle into the car, and the bicycle onto the rack on top of the car, Eric and Vickie drove to a nearby restaurant, The Patio, where they sat on the patio with the dogs and enjoyed a dinner of a pizza (Eric) and a sub (Vickie), before beginning their drive back home.

Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program.

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