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.
Sandstone, the principal bedrock outcropping in the region, is very resistant to erosion and forms the uplands and steep sides of the valleys. Twisting roads and forest trails pass through these deep ravines and lead to dense stands of beech, hickory, oak, maple and tuliptree. Seasonal displays are offered by flowering dogwood, redbud and spring wildflowers -- with fall presenting a pageant of colorful foliage. These woods are home to white-tailed deer, fox, raccoon, opossum, squirrel, wild turkey and a variety of songbirds. Woodthrush, white-breasted nuthatch, scarlet tanager, pileated woodpecker and the rufous-sided towhee inhabit the forest canopy. These rugged hills and woodlands are truly reminiscent of the wilderness that characterized the Ohio country in the days of early settlers.
Pictures
Description
On Saturday, January 25, 2025, 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 while participating in the annual Winter Field Day
(WFD) (link) field operating event.
After first helping the ACARA (link) set up for the club's WFD effort at the Jim Crouse Memorial Radio Station in the Athens Red Cross chapter house (link), Eric and Len Touth, W8VQ, caravanned to Strouds Run State Park to perform their own individual WFD + POTA operations. Len chose to set up and perform his operation in the Bulldog Shelter parking area. Eric chose to set up and perform his operation at the swim-beach area. Both Eric and Len operated in Class/Category "1M" for "One Transmitter, Mobile / Mobile Stationary".
WD8RIF
Eric arrived at the swim-beach area sometime around 2200 UTC to find several groups of people walking on the frozen surface of Dow Lake. He found himself a place to park not too close to any other car, deployed his proven 28½' end-fed random wire as a vertical supported on a Jackite 31' telescoping fiberglass mast in a drive-on base, and placed three 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Although the temperature had finally risen above freezing after having below freezing for most of the month, the breeze and the approaching darkness encouraged Eric to operate inside his car. After mounting his Elecraft KX3 on the passenger-side dashboard and setting up his logging computer on the driver's seat, Eric was on the air at 2219 UTC.
Walkers on a frozen Dow Lake!
Eric's mast and antenna captured in the fading light.
Eric's station inside his car.
Because of the need to avoid making duplicate QSOs ("dupes"), and because he intended to submit his entry for WFD, Eric logged using N1MM Logger+ (link).
Even though Len's station was nearly 1,800' away, because he expected Len to begin operations on 20m, Eric began his operation on 40m. He started at the bottom of the band and, tuning up in small increments, hunting stations participating in WFD. Band conditions were good, and the 40m band was crowded, and Eric was able make ten QSOs and validate his POTA activation in seventeen minutes. Unbeknownst to him at the time, his very first QSO, with KC3SJ at 2220 UTC, was a P2P QSO and KC3SJ was performing a three-fer activation of Sheltowee Trace National Recreation Trail (US-11181), in Natural Bridge State Park (US-1286), in Daniel Boone National Forest (US-4484) in Kentucky. (Eric has performed POTA activations of all three of these units, but not as a three-fer.)
Switching to 15m, Eric managed to successfully hunt three WFD stations in about four minutes.
Finally, hoping he wasn't interfering with Len by doing so, Eric switched to 20m and successfully hunted seven WFD stations in about twelve minutes. He later learned that his third QSO in this run, with AF0E at 2247 UTC, was a P2P QSO; AF0E was activating Cheyenne Mountain State Park (US-1214).
In all, Eric made twenty QSOs on three bands in about forty minutes of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at five watts output.
Eric's log:
Freq Mode Date Time Call Exchange 7027 CW 2025-01-25 2220 KC3SJ 1M KY US-4484 US-1286 US-11181 7028 CW 2025-01-25 2222 K4R 4O GA 7030 CW 2025-01-25 2223 N4LSJ 1H OH 7031 CW 2025-01-25 2224 N2SF 4I ENY 7034 CW 2025-01-25 2227 K4MN 3I NC 7035 CW 2025-01-25 2228 K4BAI 1H GA 7036 CW 2025-01-25 2230 W4CA 4M VA 7041 CW 2025-01-25 2233 K8UO 5I MI 7042 CW 2025-01-25 2234 KU9R 2O IN 7029 CW 2025-01-25 2237 W8ATR 3I OH 21034 CW 2025-01-25 2239 WA8ZBT 1H NTX 21036 CW 2025-01-25 2239 W5LVC 4M NTX 21037 CW 2025-01-25 2240 AA2IL 1H SDG 14028 CW 2025-01-25 2245 AB5ZA/7 1H MT 14036 CW 2025-01-25 2246 W5LVC 4M NTX 14039 CW 2025-01-25 2248 AF0E 1I CO US-1214 14039 CW 2025-01-25 2248 K5OY 1H AR 14040 CW 2025-01-25 2251 VE7RAC 2O BC 14041 CW 2025-01-25 2252 W4CI 1H NFL 14059 CW 2025-01-25 2256 W4TA 3I WCF
As darkness continued to fall, Eric took some photos, tore down his station, and drove to Bulldog Shelter to see how Len was faring.
For WFD, Eric met the WFD objectives of "operate 100% on alternative power", "operate away from home", and "operate the event QRP". He made twenty QSOs, at two points per QSO for CW, with an Objective Multiplier of four:
- 20 * 2 * 8 = 320 points
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.
W8VQ
Len operated the event inside his car, using a DL2MAN (tr)uSDX (link) transceiver that had arrived in the Post that very morning, and used a vintage Hustler mast+resonator mobile antenna secured to his stationary car's trunklid with a magmount. Len operated on 20 and 40m and made twelve QSOs. He later told Eric that he is quite pleased with the performance of the (tr)uSDX transceiver and that its received had coped quite well with the cacophony on the 20 and 40m bands.
(return)
Attribution: Winter Field Day logo copyright WFDA.