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 8, 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 early March 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.
"Welcome to Strouds Run State Park"
With a reported temperature of 58°, Eric started his ride at 1808 UTC, and arrived at Bulldog Shelter at 1837 UTC. A family was fishing on the shore of Dow Lake, but they weren't using the picnic shelter, so Eric quickly deployed his Tufteln 15' 4:1 EFRW antenna (link) supported as a vertical on his Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast strapped vertically to his bicycle, with the single 7½' counterpoise wire placed directly on concrete floor of the picnic shelter. Placing his Elecraft KH1 on a picnic table, and connecting his Whiterook MK-33 paddle and Sony MDR-EX15 earbuds, Eric was on the air at 1847 UTC.
Eric's bicycle-supported mast and antenna.
Eric's KH1 station on the picnic table.
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 called "CQ POTA" a single time and was answered by WB2FUE in Pennsylvania before Eric had even been spotted on POTA Spots, and the QSO was completed at 1848 UTC.
Eric resumed calling "CQ POTA" and was auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run came at 1850 UTC with KC2CYO in New Jersey. QSOs came quickly, with Eric's tenth QSO in this run (and eleventh overall) coming at 1904 UTC with AE4ZR in South Carolina. This run included a P2P QSO with WD4MRI at Roland Cooper State Park (US-3678) in Alabama, a P2P QSO with VA3SIE at Gatineau Conservation Park (CA-0498) in Quebec, and QSOs with operators located in Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, New Jersey, South Carolina, Quebec, and Wisconsin.
Eric finished his operation by hunting for P2P QSOs. At 1906 UTC, he made a P2P QSO on 20m with N2YC at Hempstead Lake State Park (US-2072) in New York. At 1910 UTC, he made a P2P QSO on 20m with K0LAR at Luce Line State Trail (US-9387) in Minnesota.
In all, Eric made thirteen QSOs, including four P2P QSOs, in twenty-three 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. By this time, the temperature had risen to 61° but the wind had picked up.
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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