by William Eric McFadden

From the Portage Lakes State Park website:

The 411-acre Portage Lakes State Park offers visitors a variety of outdoor recreational experiences. Boating options include sailing, jet skiing, and water skiing. Swimming and fishing are popular on eight surrounding lakes. Portage Lake's wetlands attract waterfowl and shorebirds providing visitors enjoyment whether hunting or observing wildlife.

Pictures

Description

On Sunday, November 2, 2025, two members of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed an activation of Portage Lakes State Parl (US-1984) as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

Following a visit to the MARC Hamfest at MAPS Aviation Museum at the Akron/Canton Airport, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, and Miles McFadden, KD8KNC, performed the activation of Portage Lakes State Park.

a view of the MARC Hamfest at MAPS Aviation Museum
a view of the MARC Hamfest at MAPS Aviation Museum
a view of the MARC Hamfest at MAPS Aviation Museum
The MARC Hamfest at MAPS Aviation Museum.

a museum display
The Memphis Belle / Robert Morgan display
in the MAPS Aviation Museum's Hall of Heroes.

The Portage Lakes State Park sign
"Welcome to Portage Lakes State Park".

Eric and Miles arrived at Portage Lake State Park and found their way to what's identified as "the New Ramp" on state park map. Eric selected a parking place against one end of the parking lot, out of the way, and not under power lines or low trees.

The day was surprisingly chilly, so Eric chose to perform his operation inside the car. He deployed his Tufteln (link) EFRW as a 29' vertical supported on a 31' Jackite telescoping fiberglass mast in a drive-on base, placing two 17' counterpoise wires directly on the asphalt. Mounting his Elecraft KX2 on the car's passenger-side dashboard, Eric was on the air at 1716 UTC.

Eric's KX2 station
Eric's KX2 station.

As he had hoped, Eric found he had cell-signal at this location, and he would be able to access POTA Spots to spot himself and to find Park-to-Park (P2P) QSO opportunities.

Eric began his operation on 20m and was surprised to discover that it was ARRL Sweepstakes CW weekend. After finding himself a clear frequency to run (way up in the CW portion of the band), Eric self-spotted himself on POTA Spots and began to call "CQ POTA". His first QSO came at 1718 UTC with WA1VEI who was activating Trussum Pond State Fishing Lake (US-10687) in Delaware. QSOs came quickly, with Eric's twelfth QSO coming at 1732 UTC with KC5F in North Carolina. This run included the aforementioned P2P QSO with WA1VEI, a P2P QSO with KA5TXN who was activating Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge (US-0548) in Texas, a P2P QSO with AA1BA who was activating Upton Morgan State Forest (US-4972) in New Hampshire, a QSO with F4ILH in France, and QSOs with operators located in Alabama (2), Delaware, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina (2), Oklahoma, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.

a radio operator typing on a smartphone
Eric self-spots himself on POTA Spots; photo by Miles McFadden.

a man operating a radio in a car
Eric operates; photo by Miles McFadden.

a man operating a radio in a car
Eric operates; photo by Miles McFadden.

In all, Eric made twelve QSOs in just about a quarter of an hour of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at five watts of output.

Miles chose not to set up his station or operate at Portage Lakes State Park, but he helped with Eric's station set-up and tear-down, and he did much of the activation photography.

After tearing down the station and re-packing the car, Eric are a quick picnic lunch and took some more photos, and then he and Miles began the three-hour drive home.

looking across the water toward Dusty's Landing
Looking east across Turkeyfoot Lake
toward Dusty's Landing Yacht Club.

looking across Latham Bay
Looking west across Latham Bay.

Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program for an operation at Portage Lakes State Park, KFF-1984.

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