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, August 3, 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 lovely summer morning, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, performed his operation at Bulldog Shelter within Strouds Run State Park after bicycling from his office's parking lot on the west side of Athens, Ohio.
"Welcome to Strouds Run State Park".
A flower at the park sign; yes, these photos
were taken as Eric rode out of the park.
Arriving at Bulldog Shelter on the edge of Dow Lake at 1449 UTC, Eric found the picnic shelter to be unoccupied. Selecting a suitable picnic table, and avoiding the danger-areas presented by the nesting barn swallows, he placed his Elecraft KX2 on the picnic table and deployed his Tufteln (link) 35' EFRW as a sloper up to the top of a Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast strapped vertically to his bicycle, placing three 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Eric was on the air at 1505 UTC.
Eric's KX2 station.
Eric's mast and antenna.
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.
Eric started his operation on 20m. Finding himself a clear frequency to run, he began to call "CQ POTA" and was almost immediately auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 1505 UTC with WS4Y in Florida. QSOs came quickly, with Eric's ninth QSO coming at 1518 UTC with W5RIF in Texas. This run included QSOs with operators located in Colorado, Florida (3), Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Texas (3).
Pausing to hunt for P2P QSOs, at 1523 UTC Eric made a P2P QSO on 20m with N1BS who was activating Schodack Island State Park (US-2136) in New York.
Switching to 40m, Eric found himself a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and was auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run came at 1530 UTC with K4LJB in Virginia. QSOs came quickly, with Eric's eighth QSO in this run coming at 1540 UTC with N3FLL in Pennsylvania. This run included a P2P QSO sith KD2GUT who was activating Sunken Meadow State Park (US-2147) in New York and QSOs with operators located in Michigan, New York (3), Pennsylvania, Tennessee (2), and Virginia.
In all, Eric made eighteen QSOs, including two P2P QSOs, in just about thirty-five minutes of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at five watts output.
After taking some more photos, Eric re-packed his bicycle and began his ride back to his car.
A fledgeling barn swallow.
Dow Lake, looking south...
... looking north.
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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