Amateur Radio Station WD8RIF | POTA Activation Lake Logan State Park

On Saturday, July 19, 2025, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Lake Logan State Park (US-1969) in Ohio as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

While driving to Westerville, Ohio to participate in a Central Ohio Rally Club (CORC) time-speed-distance road rally, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, stopped at Lake Logan State Park to perform his eighteenth activation of the park during the "POTA Support Your Parks, Summer" event.

Eric arrived at the picnic shelter at about 1630 UTC to find the parking area to be nearly full of pickup trucks with boat trailers, and the shelter to be occupied by one man and his grill. It turned out that the trucks and trailers were in the parking lot because of a bass fishing tournament underway on Lake Logan, and the man and his grill were in the picnic shelter because he was waiting for his wife to arrive for lunch. The man graciously allowed Eric to share the picnic shelter with him.

Eric chose a conveniently-located picnic table within the picnic shelter, deployed his Tufteln (link) 35' end-fed random wire antenna as a sloper to the top of his Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast held upright on a spike, placing three 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Placing his Elecraft KX2 on a picnic table, Eric was on the air at 1645 UTC.

As at Eric's previous activations of this park, good cell-signal was available, meaning 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, and his first QSO came at 1648 UTC with KD9ZUN in Illinois. Despite what Eric (perhaps incorrectly) took to be reasonable solar-indices (SFI of 156, SN of 139, A-Index of 11, and K-Index of 1), QSOs came slowly, with Eric's fourth QSO coming at 1658 UTC with K5FGH in Mississippi. This slow run included QSOs with operators located in Illinois, Mississippi, and Texas (2).

Following the slow run on 20m, Eric tried hunting for P2P QSOs, but all the activators he could hear were very weak and the activators, it seems, couldn't hear Eric.

Resuming his attempt to run on 20m, Eric's first QSO in this run came at 1715 UTC with W2UD who was activating Garret Mountain Reservation State Park (US-6462) in New Jersey. QSOs again came slowly, with Eric's fourth QSO in this run coming at 1721 UTC with AA1NK in Massachusetts. This run included the aforementioned P2P QSO and QSOs with operators located in Arkansas, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York.

Eric paused again to hunt for P2P QSOs, and this time he had a modicum of success at 1724 UTC by completing a P2P QSO on 20m with W2ELS who was activating Erie Canalway Corridor National Heritage Area (US-6532) in New York.

Again resuming his attempt to run on 20m, Eric made two more QSOs. At 1728 UTC he worked WA2SPL in Vermont, and at 1730 UTC he worked KD2WL who was operating QRP with just a single watt of output power in New York.

Although, by this time he had eleven QSOs and a valid activation, Eric had more time to play radio before resuming his drive north, so he switched to 40m to attempt a run there. His first QSO in this run came at 1737 UTC with WB3DDJ in Pennsylvania. QSOs came more quickly on 40m than they had on 20m, with Eric's fifth QSO in this run coming at 1742 UTC with W2GIW in New Jersey. This run included QSOs with operators located in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina (2).

During his run on 40m, the man with the grill, who had, by this time, been joined by his wife, generously gave Eric a wonderful grilled pork chop. While Eric enjoyed the pork chop, he attempted to hunt P2P QSOs and, at 1758 UTC, he managed to complete a P2P QSO on 20m with W0ABE who was activating Rocky Mountain National Park (US-0059) in Colorado.

In all, Eric made seventeen QSOs, with three P2P QSOs, in about seventy-three minutes of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with five watts output.

The view of the Lake Logan State Park
swim-beach from Eric's operating position.

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