Amateur Radio Station WD8RIF | POTA Activation Lake Logan State Park + NJQRP Skeeter Hunt

On Sunday, August 18, 2024, two members of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Lake Logan State Park in Ohio as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, and Miles McFadden, KD8KNC, performed a valid activation of Lake Logan State Park while Eric participated in the New Jersey QRP Club's Skeeter Hunt (link) field operating event as Skeeter #93. Eric and Miles were accompanied by small dog Theo.

Eric hadn't planned on being able to participate in Skeeter Hunt because he and Miles were to spend the entire afternoon building a Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) road rally to be run in September as part of the Central Ohio Rally Club (CORC) summer series of monthly Saturday afternoon rallies. However, they completed their work on the rally just early enough that Eric would be able to participate in a portion of the final hour of Skeeter Hunt at nearby Lake Logan State Park.

Arriving at Lake Logan State Park, Eric and Miles chose to set up near the park's picnic shelter on Lake Logan Road. The picnic shelter was unoccupied, but Eric chose to set up his station on his folding camp-chair, in the shade of large trees. Strapping his 31' Jackite telescoping fiberglass mast to his chair, Eric deployed his 28½' wire as a vertical and placed three 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Placing his Elecraft KX3 on the camp-chair's flip-up table, Eric was on the air at 2023 UTC.

Eric operating; photo by Miles McFadden.

Theo-dog guards the operation;
photo by Miles McFadden.

As at Eric's previous activations of this park, he had good cell-signal and would be able to spot himself on POTA Spots (link) and to use POTA Spots to identify possible park-to-park (P2P) QSO opportunities.

As soon as Eric had turned on his KX3 and dialed to the 40m QRP calling frequency, he heard N2TNN calling "CQ BZZ" and Eric was able to complete a QSO with N2TNN in Virgina at 2025 UTC.

Eric wanted to operate as a straight-up Skeeter Hunt participant for as long as he could, so he found himself a 40m frequency to run, began calling "CQ BZZ", and and did NOT spot himself to POTA Spots. Despite being warned by his friend Len, W8VQ, who had been operating the entire Skeeter Hunt period, that 40m was in poor condition, Eric found 40m to be productive. Eric's first QSO in this run came at 2030 UTC with KE3V in Pennsylvania. Eric's sixth QSO in this run and seventh QSO overall came at 2042 UTC with AG4P in Tennessee.

Eric paused to try to work W8VQ on 40m, but Len couldn't hear him. Eric then found a frequency to run on 20m, but no one responded to his calls.

Returning to 40m, Eric found N0MII in Missouri calling "CQ BZZ" on the frequency he had minutes before abandoned and at 2054 UTC, Eric completed a QSO with him. Eric found himself a clear frequency on 40m to run and began calling "CQ BZZ", but he made no more QSOs before Skeeter Hunt ended at 2100 UTC.

Eric had hoped to be able to validate a POTA activation of Lake Logan State Park by making ten Skeeter Hunt QSOs but was satisfied with having made eight Skeeter Hunt QSOs in such a short time. After the end of Skeeter Hunt at 2100 UTC, in order to validate his POTA activation, Eric spotted himself on POTA Spots and began calling "CQ POTA". His first QSO in this run came at 2101 UTC with W4GSS in Georgia. This was followed at 2103 UTC by a QSO with WB8LZR in North Carolina.

Switching to 20m, Eric found a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and was self-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run came at 2110 UTC with K1NEO in Maine. This was followed at 2112 UTC by a QSO with N0FRC in Missouri.

In all, Eric made twelve QSOs, with eight of these QSOs being eligible to submit to Skeeter Hunt. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with five watts output.

Miles did not operate but helped with set-up and tear-down and did most of the activation photography.

For Eric's Skeeter Hunt submission, his calculate score was 1,052 points:

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