Amateur Radio Station WD8RIF | POTA Activation Lake Logan State Park

by William Eric McFadden

From the park's website:

Much time has passed since the region was first uplifted from the ancient sea that once covered most of Ohio. This unglaciated plateau is Ohio’s oldest landscape. The land was untouched by the ancient glaciers that invaded much of Ohio, which created a unique, rugged terrain that is not seen anywhere else in the state. The Hocking area was a major outlet for glacial meltwaters and deposited large amounts of outwash material of primarily sand and gravel. This resulted in a landscape marked by deep gorges, caves and waterfalls.

Predominately oak and hickory, the forest surrounding Lake Logan features white and black oak, tuliptree, shagbark and pignut hickory. The forest floor is speckled with a variety of wildflowers including fire pink, wintergreen, bluet and spring beauty. Ground cover plants include greenbriar, blueberry and numerous ferns and fungi.

Raccoon, opossum, skunk, red-backed salamander, gray squirrel, box turtle, white-tailed deer and wild turkey are all found in the park. Many birds frequent the area, making it an excellent place for birdwatching. The red-tailed hawk, barn owl, pileated woodpecker and scarlet tanager all call this area home. Various species of waterfowl can be viewed during spring and fall migration.

Pictures

Eric's KX3 station

Eric's mast and antenna

Theo-dog; photo by Miles McFadden

Eric operates; photo by Miles McFadden

Eric mugs for the camera; photo by Miles McFadden

A dragonfly

Description

On Sunday, August 24, 2025, 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 at the park's single picnic shelter. Eric and Miles were accompanied by Eric's dog, Theo. This was to be Eric's twentieth activation of the park, earning him a Oasis Repeat Offender Activator Award for the park.

After having lunch with his parents, who had spent the weekend at Lake Hope State Park while his father and a friend activated Vinton County in the Ohio QSO Party, at the Hocking Hills Diner in Logan, Eric and Theo-dog arrived at Lake Logan State Park's only picnic shelter at about 1815 UTC to find the shelter occupied by a single man and his bicycle. Eric asked, and the man agreeably allowed Eric to use a table for his operation. Just as Eric started setting up his station, Miles arrived, having driven from his house near Millfield.

Eric had brought with him several radio options, and he chose to perform this operation using his Enhanced KX3 Travel Kit. He and Miles quickly deployed the 28½' speaker-wire antenna as a sloper to the top of a Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast held upright on a spike, placing three 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Placing the KX3 on a well-positioned picnic table and connecting power, paddle, and headphones, Eric was on the air at 1846 UTC.

As at Eric's previous nineteen 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.

Eric began his operation on 20m. After finding himself a clear frequency to run, he began calling "CQ POTA" and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 1848 UTC with K0RQ in North Dakota. QSOs came steadily, with Eric's twelfth QSO coming at 1914 UTC with KA5KTI in Arkansas. This run included a P2P QSO with AA1BA who was activating Mystic River State Reserve (US-8418) in Massachusetts and QSOs with operators located in Arkansas (2), Florida (4), Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota, Texas, and Vermont.

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 1918 UTC with K4UI in Kentucky. QSOs came steadily, with Eric's eighth QSO in this run coming at 1937 UTC with WA9AGG in Indiana. This run included QSOs with operators located in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia.

In all, Eric made twenty QSOs, with one P2P QSO, in a bit less than an hour. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with five watts output.

Miles did not operate but tended to Theo-dog, helped with station set-up and tear-down, and did much of the activation photography.

Early in Eric's operation, another couple arrived to eat their lunch in the shade of the picnic shelter. Todd Herzog, N8RNW, had just completed his hike of the Buckeye Trail, and his wife Mary had met him at the trailhead located within Lake Logan State Park. The more Eric and Miles spoke with Todd and Mary, the more they felt they had met before, and it quickly came out that Eric and Miles, and Todd and Mary, had all worked the same special stage in Southern Ohio Forest Rally the previous June. Following station tear-down, Todd and Mary gave Eric and Miles a tour of the lightweight camper Todd had recently built, and Todd described the materials and methods he had used during the construction. (Eric should have thought to make some photos of the camper, but failed to do so. Fortunately, Todd had made photos during the build; these photos can be found at at https://therzog.smugmug.com/; click "Projects", then "Camper".)

Following the successful operation and the nice visit with Todd and Mary, Eric and Miles left Miles's car in Lake Hope Staet Park while they (and Theo-dog) drove the short distance north in Eric's car to the Harbor Freight in Lancaster, after which they had dinner at Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers before picking up Miles's car on their way home.

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

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