From the Strouds Run State Park website:

Located outside of the city of Athens and within easy driving distance of Ohio University, Strouds Run State Park surrounds Dow Lake and draws a mix of trail and lake users. Miles of hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding provide scenic views from rugged trails. The lake offers boating, paddling, swimming and a shaded campground.

Pictures

Eric's station: 1 | 2

Description

On Thursday, March 21, 2024, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Strouds Run State Park (US-1994) as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

On a cool but sunny early afternoon, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, visited the swim-beach area in Strouds Run State Park to perform a quick POTA activation.

Eric arrived at the swim-beach area at 1639 UTC and quickly set up his Elecraft KX3 transceiver and AX1/AXE1 portable antenna system on an available picnic table. Eric was on the air at 1645 UTC.

Eric's station, with the antenna configured for 20m.


Eric's station overlooking Dow Lake.

As expected, Eric found he had good cell-signal at this location and he would be able to spot himself on the POTA Spots website (link) and to use POTA Spots to identify possible Park-to-Park (P2P) QSOs.

Wanting to start his operation on 40m, Eric configured his antenna to include the AXE1 40m coil and the 33' counterpoise wire, used the lovely KE8PTX 3D-printed AX1 support bracket to stabilize the antenna, and set the AX1 switch to 20m, and allowed his KX3's internal antenna tuner to match the antenna for 40m. Finding himself a clear frequency to run, he began calling "CQ POTA", and was auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 1649 UTC with W4ELP in Virginia. This was followed at 1650 UTC by a QSO with WB8DTT in Michigan. Then, nothing.

Pausing to hunt for P2P QSOs, at 1654 UTC Eric completed a P2P QSO on 40m with W8AXL at Delaware State Park (US-1946) in Ohio.

Wanting to switch to 20m, Eric reconfigured his antenna by removing the AXE1 40m coil and swapping the 33' counterpoise wire for the 13' counterpoise wire. Finding himself a clear 20m frequency to run, Eric began calling "CQ POTA", and was again auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO on 20m came at 1706 UTC with W2SCT in New York. QSOs came quickly, with Eric's fifth QSO in the run coming at 1709 UTC with WB0VPS in Missouri. This run included QSOs with operators located in New York, Georgia, Illinois, Nova Scotia, and Missouri.

Pausing again to hunt for P2P QSOs, at 1713 UTC Eric made a P2P QSO in 20m with KC5F at Shealy's Pond Heritage Preserve Wildlife Management Area (US-10465) in South Carolina.

Returning to run-mode on his previous frequency, Eric's first QSO in this second run on 20m came at 1715 UTC with AC0DK in Wisconsin. QSOs came steadily, and over the next five minutes Eric worked W2NR in New Hampshire, AD9CA in Illinois, and K1RIF in Massachusetts.

Eric finished his activation by hunting for P2P QSOs. At 1725 UTC, he completed a P2P QSO on 20m with KL7NL who was performing a two-fer activation of Turnbull Creek Educational State Forest (US-4860) and Bladen Lakes State Forest (US-4852) in North Carolina. This was followed at 1727 UTC by a P2P QSO on 20m with AE9XT at Governor Nelson State Park (US-1452) in Wisconsin.

In all, Eric logged fifteen QSOs, with five P2P QSOs, in just about forty-five minutes of operating time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at five watts output.

This was Eric's first attempt on 40m with the AX1/AXE1 antenna combination. He had hoped to validate his activation by making ten QSOs solely on 40m with this antenna, but band conditions hadn't allowed this. This was Eric's fourth activation using the AX1 on 20m.

Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program for an operation at Strouds Run State Park, KFF-1994.

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