Amateur Radio Station WD8RIF | POTA Activation Strouds Run State Park

by William Eric McFadden

From the Strouds Run State Park website:

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

"Welcome to Strouds Run State Park"

Eric's KH1 station

Eric's mast and antenna

Frozen Dow Lake: 1 | 2

Description

On Saturday, February 14, 2026, 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.

Taking advantage of a warm February afternoon, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, did both a bicycle ride and a POTA activation of Strouds Run State park, bicycling from his work-office's parking lot to Bulldog Shelter within the state park.

When Eric started his ride, the Ohio University airport was reporting a temperature of 53°, but as soon as Eric started the descent into the state park area, the temperature dropped at least ten degrees from the shaded snow still on the hillsides; fortunately it wasn't a windy day and Eric wasn't too uncomfortable on this ride. Eric arrived at Bulldog Shelter at 2030 UTC and began setting up his station in the unoccupied picnic shelter. After first verifying that the ground wasn't so swampy from melting snow that his bicycle would fall over, he deployed his ad hoc 35' EFRW antenna supported as a sloper on his Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast strapped vertically to his bicycle, with the single 13' counterpoise wire placed directly on the concrete floor of the shelterhouse. Placing his Elecraft KH1 on a picnic table, Eric was on the air at 2042 UTC.

As expected, Eric had cell-signal at Bulldog Shelter, and 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. After finding himself a clear frequency to run, Eric began calling "CQ POTA" and was auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 2048 UTC with W9DP in Illinois. QSOs came quickly, with Eric's tenth QSO coming at 2056 UTC with KG8YT in Michigan. This run included QSOs with operators located in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma (2), Texas, and Wisconsin.

Eric switched to 40m, found himself a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and was auto-spotted on POTA Spots. However, the dropping temperature was beginning to make Eric uncomfortable, so he gave up on 40m before anyone responded to his calls.

Eric finished his operation by hunting for P2P QSOs and succeeded in making five P2P QSOs, all on 20m:

At 2102 UTC, he worked N0MTT who was activating Arbor Lodge State Historical Park (US-2610) in Michigan.
At 2104 UTC, he worked W8EO who was activating Loxahatchee River National Wild and Scenic River (S-6281) in Florida.
At 2107 UTC, he worked W4LOO who was activating Jordanelle State Park (US-3080) in Utah.
At 2111 UTC, he worked VA2IDX who was running 5w at Parc de la Pointe Taylor Regional Park (CA-5021) in Quebec.
At 2116 UTC, he worked AF5DM who was performing a two-fer activation of Wapsipinicon State Park (US-2327) and Wapsipinicon River Water State Trail (US-11305) in Iowa.

In all, Eric made fifteen QSOs, including five P2P QSOs, in thirty-four minutes of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at five watts output.

Following his final QSO, Eric took some more photos, tore down his station, and began the ride back to his car.

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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