by William Eric McFadden
From the Strouds Run State Park website:
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The park derives its name from the Strouds family who settled in the area in the early 1800s. The land was purchased by the state for forest conservation purposes from 1948 to 1953. The dam creating Dow Lake was completed in 1960. The lake bears the name of C.L. Dow of Ohio University who was instrumental in initiating the project.
Pictures
Description
On Sunday, May 26, 2024, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful bicycle-portable activation of Strouds Run State Park (US-1994) as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link).
Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, bicycled from his home to Bulldog Shelter within the park for his 101st activation of the park.
Eric arrived at Bulldog Shelter at about 1415 UTC, pleased to find it unoccupied and available for his use. He chose one of the available picnic tables at the site for his operating location, set up his Elecraft KX2, erected his Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast on his bicycle, sloped his Tufteln (link) 35' EFRW antenna from the KX2 up to top of the mast, and deployed three 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Eric was on the air at 1434 UTC.
Eric's KX2 station.
Eric's bicycle-supported antenna.
It being CQ WW WPX CW Contest (link) weekend, Eric started his operation on 17m in order to avoid the crowds on the non-WARC bands. Finding himself a clear frequency to run, Eric began calling "CQ POTA", and was pleased to be auto-spotted on POTA Spots. Although he spent at least ten minutes calling, Eric succeeded in making just one QSO in 17m, at 1439 UTC, with W5WWW in Texas.
Switching to 30m, Eric found a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and was again auto-spotted on POTA Spots. This band was significantly more productive than 17m had been, with Eric's first QSO in this run coming at 1450 UTC with WA2QLK in New Jersey. QSOs came steadily, with Eric's sixth QSO in this run coming at 1500 UTC with AI5DD in Oklahoma. This run included QSOs with operators located in New Jersey (2), Maine, North Carolina (2), and Oklahoma.
Pausing to hunt for P2P QSOs, at 1505 UTC Eric completed a P2P QSO on 30m with WB0RLJ who was activating Chalco Hills State Recreation Area (US-4011) in Nebraska. After this QSO, Eric spent another five minutes or so calling CQ on 30m but no additional QSOs were made.
Switching to 40m, and being pleased he was able to find a clear frequency with no contest activity on it, Eric began calling "CQ POTA" and was, yet again, auto-spotted on POTA Spots. Eric's first QSO in this run came at 1513 UTC with his good friend K4SWL in North Carolina. His second QSO in this run came at 1517 UTC with KS4S in North Carolina.
Eric finished his operation by hunting for WPX contest QSOs. At 1525 UTC, he completed a QSO on 20m with VA7ST in British Columbia, and at 1531 UTC he completed a QSO in 20m with N7RVD in Washington.
In all, Eric logged twelve QSOs, with one P2P QSO. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at five watts output.
Eric's log
During his operation, Eric enjoyed watching swallows who are nesting in the picnic shelter, and red-wing blackbirds, one Dow Lake's resident herons, and fish jumping out of the lake.
Eric tore down his station, loaded everything back onto his bicycle, and rode back home.
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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