Amateur Radio Station WD8RIF | POTA Activation Lake Alma State Park, OH

by William Eric McFadden

From the park website:

Lake Alma is set in the heart of the unglaciated hill country of Jackson and Vinton counties, Ohio. These hills are a part of the Appalachian Highlands. Most of the rock layers are acidic sandstones, shales and coals with an occasional limestone member. Much time has passed since the region was first uplifted from the ancient sea that once covered Ohio—allowing for the development of many different habitats.

Today, this region supports more than 70 percent of Ohio’s remaining woodlands on only one-third of the state’s land. The park is a fine example of the second growth forest now covering this part of the state. In this area, the forest is mainly comprised of a mixed oak composition.

With the progress of forest succession on surrounding farmlands, upswings in the population of deer, gray squirrel and other woodland species were encouraged. In the late 1950s, wild turkey were reintroduced into the region giving Vinton County the highest population of this species. Other valuable resources found at Lake Alma include a vast array of woodland wildflowers, such as large-flowered trillium, wild geranium and hepatica. The forest floor is blanketed with a variety of ferns, mosses and lichens. The wood thrush, pileated woodpecker, great-horned owl and barred owl make this park their home.

Pictures

Departing Wellston:

At Lake Alma State Park:

Thomas deploys the antenna: 1 | 2
Lake Alma: 1 | 2
The KX2 station
Tom recording video
Eric's bicycle and trailer
Tom's Brompton folding bicycle
Tom operates: 1 | 2
Theo-dog

Returning to Wellston:

The Lake Alma State Park sign

Description

On Tuesday, May 12, 2026, two members of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed successful bicycle-portable activations of Lake Alma State Park in Ohio as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

On the day before they were to drive together to the Dayton area for Four Days in May (FDIM, info) and Hamvention (info), Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, and Thomas Witherspoon, K4SWL, bicycled the Wellston Bike Path from the old railroad depot in Wellston to Lake Alma State Park. This was to be Tom's very first bicycle-portable POTA activation. Eric pulled his little dog Theo in a doggie-trailer behind his bicycle. Tom and Eric (and Theo) were joined at the state park by Tom's good friend Clark Boyd (bio), who was driving through Ohio on that day.

Tom and Eric (with Theo) began their ride at the Wellston Depot at 1812 UTC, with Eric riding his new Surly bicycle and Tom riding his made-in-England Brompton A-Line folding bicycle.

Upon reaching Lake Alma State Park, Tom and Eric (with Theo) rode counterclockwise around Lake Alma to Pine Hill Shelter and found it to be unoccupied. Clark had already arrived at the state park and drove to Pine Hill Shelter to meet them.

After spending some time with Clark, Tom threw a line over a convenient tree branch and deployed a 40m end-fed halfwave antenna for both operators to use. After taking some photos of the scenery and the goings-on, Eric placed his Elecraft KX2 on a conveniently-located picnic table within the shelter, connected the 40m EFHW antenna, plugged in his Whiterook MK-33 paddle and amplified speaker, and was on the air at 1904 UTC.

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.

While Tom and Clark continued to get re-acquainted, Eric began his operation on 20m. After disabling his KX2's internal antenna tuner and finding himself a clear frequency to run, he began calling "CQ POTA" and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 1907 UTC with WA1VEI who was operating mobile while driving through Pennsylvania to Dayton for FDIM and Hamvention. This was followed at 1914 UTC by a QSO with WI5D in Missouri, and at 1916 UTC by a QSO with AA5UZ in Louisiana.

Switching to 40m, Eric found a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and was auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run came at 1925 UTC with WA0QZK in Indiana. QSOs came steadily, if not quickly, with Eric's eighth QSO in this run coming at 1941 UTC with W8JWL in Michigan. This run included a second QSO with WA1VEI/M and QSOs with operators located in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina.

In all, Eric made eleven QSOs in thirty-six minutes of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with five watts output.

After Eric completed his activation, Tom set up his recording equipment and began making a video for his blog before sitting down at Eric's rig to begin his own operation using Eric's KX2, Eric's Whiterook MK-33 paddle, and his own 40m EFHW antenna.

As might have been expected, Tom had no trouble whatsoever validating his activation by quickly making the required ten QSOs plus some more. (So many POTA hunters have "K4SWL" in their HamAlert (info) app trigger-list that Tom can easily make ten QSOs even when he isn't spotted on POTA Spots.)

After Tom completed his operation, he and Eric tore down the station, re-packed their bicycles, and began their ride back to Wellston.

Back at Wellston, Tom and Eric loaded the Brompton into Eric's car and the Surly onto the roof of Eric's car, and separated, Eric and Theo returning to their home in Athens, and Tom and Clark driving in Clark's car to Eclipse Company Store (info) in The Plains for dinner together.

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

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