by William Eric McFadden
From the Strouds Run State Park website:
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Strouds Run State Park is located in the scenic forested hills of Athens County, in the midst of the unglaciated Appalachian Plateau. Although untouched by the vast ice sheets that moved across portions of the state over 12,000 years ago, Strouds Run displays the effects of the glaciers -- in the deep ravines and high hills -- where the valleys served as outlets for torrents of glacial meltwaters. The erosive power of these waters carved the valleys and hillsides, creating the familiar topography Ohioans know today. Large deposits of glacial outwash, primarily sand and gravel, were deposited along these streams and strongly affected the type of biological communities present today.
Pictures
Description
On Thursday, December 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) program.
When the day after Christmas brought unseasonably-warm weather, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, decided to combine a bicycle ride with a POTA activation. Eric began his ride at his workplace parking lot, when the temperature was 55°F, and rode to the state park's Bulldog Shelter, arriving at 1919 UTC, finding the picnic shelter to be unoccupied.
"Welcome to Strouds Run State Park".
Eric's had carried with him on this ride his KH1 Micro Travel Kit, a Whiterook MK-33 single-lever paddle and cable in a tin can, clipboards, his Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast, and a new Tufteln 4:1 EFRW antenna (link). Placing his KH1 on the end of one of the picnic tables, Eric deployed the antenna as much like a true vertical as he could, with the 15' radiator supported on his partially extended Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 telescoping carbon fiber mast bungied vertically to his bicycle and the 7½' counterpoise wire placed directly on the ground. Because the saturated ground was very soft, he placed his paddle's tin can under the bicycle's kickstand in order to prevent the kickstand from sinking into the ground and the bicycle toppling over. (While he was positioning his bicycle and mast to prevent the antenna's radiator wire from rubbing against the edge of the picnic shelter's metal roof, Eric managed to pull his KH1 off of the picnic table not just once, but twice; fortunately, the KH1 didn't seem to suffer any damage. In the future, Eric will need to fashion some sort of strain-relief to prevent the radio from falling.) After successfully positioning his bicycle and mast, Eric was on the air at 1932 UTC.
The KH1 station.
The mast and antenna.
As he has come to expect, Eric had cell-signal at Bulldog Shelter and he would be able to access POTA Spots to spot himself and to find Park-to-Park (P2P) QSO opportunities.
The first order of business was to verify that the KH1's internal antenna tuner could find a match on all the bands the KH1 covers and the KH1 did, indeed, quickly find good matches on the 40, 30, 20, 17, and 15m bands.
After looking at POTA Spots to see where other activators were finding success, Eric began his operation on 20m. Finding himself a clear frequency to run, he began calling "CQ POTA" and was auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 1936 UTC with KB4VU in Florida.
When subsequent QSOs on 20m didn't come, Eric checked POTA Spots for P2P QSO opportunities, and at 1944 UTC he made a P2P QSO on 20m with N2GSL who was activating Captree State Park (US-2028) in New York.
Returning to run a frequency on to 20m and, hoping for better success, Eric began calling "CQ POTA" again and his first QSO in this run came at 1946 UTC with N7ZYV in Mississippi. This time, QSOs came quickly, with the eleventh QSO in this run coming at 1957 UTC with KN4PPD in Florida. This run included a three-fer P2P QSO with N1CCC who was activating Santa Fe National Historic Trail (US-4579), Oregon National Historic Trail (US-4576), and California National Historic Trail (US-4566) in Missouri; a P2P QSO with K4KVC who was activating Panasoffkee Outlet State Conservation Area (US-6455) in Florida; and QSOs with operators located in Arkansas, Florida (4), Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, and New York. One QSO in this run was a dupe (KB4VU), and one QSO seems to have included a busted callsign (KU3DI).
Because the solar numbers (SFI=253, SN=202) implied the possibility of good propagation on the higher bands, at 1959 UTC Eric switched to 17m, found himself a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and was again auto-spotted on POTA Spots. However, several minutes of calling CQ resulted in only a single QSO, at 2005 UTC, with KA6VVD in California.
Eric finished his operation by hunting for P2P QSOs and at 2010 UTC, he made a P2P QSO on 30m with K4OCY who was activating Cordell Hull Wildlife Management Area (US-7580) in Tennessee.
In all, and including the dupe and the busted callsign, and counting the three-fer P2P QSO as three QSOs, Eric made seventeen QSOs, including six P2P QSOs, in about thirty-eight minutes of on-air time.
Eric's logsheet.
After the operation, Eric took some more photos, loaded his bicycle, and began the ride back to his car.
Dow Lake.
Eric was pleased to have been able to perform an unprecedented third bicycle-portable POTA activation during an Ohio December, and he was pleased to have been able to test his new Tufteln 4:1 EFRW antenna.
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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