by William Eric McFadden
From the Strouds Run State Park website:
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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
Description
On Sunday, March 30, 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.
On an overcast and sprinkly afternoon, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, had an hour to kill while his wife was busy at the church, and he visited the Strouds Run State Park's swim-beach area to perform a quick POTA activation. Eric was accompanied by his small dog, Theo.
Arriving at swim-beach area at about 2210 UTC, Eric quickly walked Theo and then began setting up his station. Eric deployed his 28½' EFRW as a vertical on a Jackite 31' telescoping fiberglass mast in a drive-on base, placing three 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Because of the threat of rain, Eric chose to operate inside his car and, mounting his Elecraft KX2 on the passenger-side dashboard of the car, Eric was on the air at 2215 UTC.
Eric's station inside the car, with Theo.
Eric's mast and antenna and a view of Dow Lake.
As expected, 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.
Starting on 20m, Eric found a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 2217 UTC with K7MOA in Texas. QSOs came quickly, with Eric's seventeenth QSO coming at 2236 UTC with NA7DO who was performing a POTA activation of Saint Edward State Park (US-3261) in Washington. This run included the aforementioned P2P QSO and QSOs with operators located in Arizona, California, Florida (4), Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Missouri (2), Oregon, Texas (3), Washington, and Wyoming.
Switching to 40m, Eric found himself a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run came at 2241 UTC with N4GO in Kentucky. This was immediately followed at by a QSO with WB3DDJ in Pennsylvania. Eric's third QSO in this run came at 2244 UTC with K1MRR in Massachusetts. Eric's fourth and final QSO in this run came at 2245 UTC with KD2WBX in New York
His time having run out, Eric took some photographs and tore down his station so that he could returned to the church to pick up his wife.
The new kids' play area.
In all, Eric made twenty-one QSOs, including one P2P QSO, in twenty-five minutes of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at five watts output.
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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