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 Tuesday, February 25, 2025, 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.
On a gorgeous Spring-like day following what felt like an interminable winter, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, decided to combine his very first outdoor bicycle ride of 2025 with a POTA activation. Eric began his ride at his workplace parking lot, when the temperature was 60°F, and rode to the Strouds Run State Park's Bulldog Shelter, arriving at about 1825 UTC.
"Welcome to Strouds Run State Park".
Eric 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, and his Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast. Placing his KH1 on a picnic table where he would be able to enjoy the sunshine, Eric deployed his ad hoc 35' EFRW antenna as an inverted-L between a picnic shelter post and the top of his Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 telescoping carbon fiber mast bungied vertically to his bicycle, with the 13' counterpoise wire placed directly on the ground opposite the radiating wire. Because the ground was saturated from a hard winter's worth of melted snow, 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. Eric was on the air at 1832 UTC.
Eric's mast and antenna; the radiator was left
looser than normal because of gusty wind.
Eric's KH1 station.
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.
Eric began his operation on 20m. While looking for a clear frequency to run, he found a strong station calling "CQ POTA" and at 1833 UTC he completed a P2P QSO with K3SLH who was activating PA 196 State Game Land (US-8893) in Pennsylvania. Finding himself a clear frequency, Eric began calling "CQ POTA" and was immediately rewarded with a QSO with WA2SPL in Vermont. After this QSO, Eric continued calling "CQ POTA" in hopes of being auto-spotted on POTA Spots, but after several minutes of calling with no responses, Eric saw that he hadn't been auto-spotted, and he self-spotted himself. His second QSO in this run came at 1845 UTC with K5COL in Iowa. After this, QSOs came very slowly. About eighteen minutes after he had self-spotted himself, Eric noticed that his initial self-spot on POTA Spots hadn't been updated; realizing that the POTA auto-spot algorithm must not be working, he began manually re-spotting himself every few minutes as he continued to call CQ. Eric's fifth QSO in this run came at 1857 UTC with WB9HFK in Illinois. This run included QSOs with operators located in Illinois, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
At this point, Eric heard a station on the edge of his KH1's CW filter calling "CQ POTA". Changing his frequency to tune this station in, at 1859 UTC Eric completed a P2P QSO with N2GSL who was activating Valley Stream State Park (US-2153) in New York.
Because he had begun to suspect that his previous frequency had been one someone else he couldn't hear was running, Eric found himself a new 20m frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and updated his spot on POTA Spots. Eric's first QSO in this run came at 1911 UTC with K2YMQ in New Jersey. QSOs now seemed to come slightly more quickly than earlier, with Eric's second QSO in this run coming at 1914 UTC with WA2OUZ who was performing a two-fer activation of Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site (US-10663) and Erie Canalway Corridor National Heritage Area (US-6532) in New York. His third QSO in this run came at 1918 UTC with N1XV in New Jersey, and his fourth QSO in this run came at 1919 UTC with W8ICX who was activating USS Alabama Battleship Park (US-11376) in Alabama.
Eric finished his activation by hunting for P2P QSOs and at 1923 UTC he completed a P2P QSO on 20m with AF5D at Tyler State Park (US-3059) in Texas.
In all, Eric made twelve QSOs, including six P2P QSOs, in about fifty-one minutes of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at five watts output.
After the operation, Eric took some more photos, loaded his bicycle, and began the ride back to his car.
A still-frozen Dow Lake.
Eric was pleased to have finally been able to perform his first outdoor bicycle ride of the year, and to have been able to perform a bicycle-portable POTA activation at the same time, but he wryling noted that his bicycling log shows that by this date in 2024, he had already done thirteen outdoor bicycle rides—an indication of just how wintery January and February 2025 had been in southeastern Ohio.
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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