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

On Sunday, August 17, 2025, one member 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, performed a valid activation of Lake Logan State Park while participating in the New Jersey QRP Club's Skeeter Hunt (link) field operating event as Skeeter #43. Eric was accompanied by his dog Theo, his wife Vickie, and his grandson Archer.

Arriving at Lake Logan State Park, Eric went directly to the park's only picnic shelter, with the hope that it would be available for shelter from the intense sunshine and high temperatures. Surprisingly, the picnic shelter was unoccupied, and Eric chose a picnic table at one end of the shelter for his base-of-operations. In order to qualify for the Skeeter Hunt x4 multiplier (portable, homebrew or kit-built radio), Eric had brought his Enhanced KX3 Travel Kit because it includes his Elecraft KX3, a transceiver that Eric had built from a kit. Eric deployed the Enhanced KX3 Travel Kit's 28½' EFRW speaker-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, arranged to avoid being trip- or tangle-hazards for Archer and Theo-dog. Placing his KX3 on the picnic table, connecting the 4Ah LiFePO4 external battery, connecting the Whiterook MK33 paddle, and connecting the Sony headphones, Eric was on the air at 1834 UTC, ninety-three minutes into the Skeeter Hunt's four-hour period.

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), if necessary, and to use POTA Spots to identify possible park-to-park (P2P) QSO opportunities.

Eric wanted to operate as a straight-up Skeeter Hunt participant for as long as he could, spotting himself on POTA Spots only if (or when) he found himself having trouble making the ten QSOs necessary to validate his POTA activation.

Starting on 20m, Eric dialed his KX3 to the 20m QRP calling frequency of 14.060 MHz and began hunting for Skeeter Hunt stations, successfully working six Skeeters in twenty-two minutes. When he could no longer find new Skeeters to call, he found himself a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ BZZ", and worked two more Skeeters in about four minutes.

Eric operates while Archer plays;
photo by Vickie McFadden.

Theo-dog attempts a selfie while sitting on Eric's lap.

With eight QSOs in the log, all of which were Skeeters, Eric decided to do a bit of hunting for POTA P2P QSOs, and at 1911 UTC, he worked W8WZ at Two Ponds National Wildlife Refuge (US-0227) in Colorado.

At 1922 UTC, with nine QSOs logged, Eric found himself a clear 20m frequency to run, spotted himself on POTA Spots, and continued calling "CQ BZZ" to indicate his participation in Skeeter Hunt. Over the next fourteen minutes, Eric completed six QSOs on 20m, four of which were Skeeters.

Switching to 40m, Eric tuned to the 40m QRP calling frequency of 7.030 MHz and tuned for Skeeters, managing to work three Skeeters in just about eight minutes.

In all, Eric made eighteen QSOs, with at least four of these being P2P QSOs, over a period of just about seventy-six minutes. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with five watts output.

Lake Logan, looking south at the boat-launch...

... and looking north.

Large, at tall, flowering lilypads of some
sort near the boat-launch area.

For Eric's Skeeter Hunt submission, his calculate score was 2,800 points:

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