Amateur Radio Station WD8RIF | POTA Activation Strouds Run State Park

by William Eric McFadden

From the Strouds Run State Park website:

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.

Sandstone, the principal bedrock outcropping in the region, is very resistant to erosion and forms the uplands and steep sides of the valleys. Twisting roads and forest trails pass through these deep ravines and lead to dense stands of beech, hickory, oak, maple and tuliptree. Seasonal displays are offered by flowering dogwood, redbud and spring wildflowers -- with fall presenting a pageant of colorful foliage. These woods are home to white-tailed deer, fox, raccoon, opossum, squirrel, wild turkey and a variety of songbirds. Woodthrush, white-breasted nuthatch, scarlet tanager, pileated woodpecker and the rufous-sided towhee inhabit the forest canopy. These rugged hills and woodlands are truly reminiscent of the wilderness that characterized the Ohio country in the days of early settlers.

Pictures

Eric's bicycle, loaded for the ride

Climbing Cable Lane: 1 | 2

The Strouds Run State Park sign

Eric's KH1 station

Eric's mast and antenna: 1 | 2

Geese and goslings

Gosling down

Dow Lake: 1 | 2

Looking down onto US-33: 1 | 2

Beginning the Cable Lane descent

Description

On Friday, June 5, 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 a day of use-or-lose vacation, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, performed a bicycle-portable POTA activation of Strouds Run State Park. Since the weather was so nice, Eric decided to add some miles and some hills by starting his ride at his home south of Athens.

Eric started his ride from his home at 1426 UTC. About two miles from home, he paused to have a quick chat on the local 2m repeater with Mike, KD3CQL, who was passing through town. (Mike, it turns out, is also a bicyclist and hopes to do bicycle-portable POTA himself at some point.) Eric arrived at Bulldog Shelter at 1532 UTC to find is unoccupied except for Canada geese grazing on the lawn.

Bulldog Shelter being unoccupied, Eric chose his regular picnic table and deployed his KH1 Micro Travel Kit's 35' ad hoc end-fed random wire antenna as a sloper to the top of his Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast bungied vertically to his bicycle, placing a single 13' counterpoise wire directly on the ground. Placing his Elecraft KH1 on the table in "picnic table" mode, and hooking up his Whiterook MK-33 paddle and Sony earbuds, Eric was on the air at 1544 UTC.

Cell-signal at the site was weak, but Eric had enough signal to access POTA Spots (link) to spot himself and to look for park-to-park (P2P) QSO opportunities.

Eric began his operation on 20m. As he was tuning to find a clear frequency, he came across a station calling "CQ POTA" and at 1547 UTC he completed a P2P QSO with K2JVB at Bethpage State Park (US-2014) in New York.

After finding himself a clear frequency, Eric began calling "CQ POTA" and was auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run came at 1552 UTC with AA4NO in North Carolina. QSOs came steadily, with Eric's fourth QSO in this run coming at 1601 UTC with NC8I in Florida. At this point, Eric was forced to change frequency when another station started calling "CQ" on top of him. Eric found another clear frequency, began calling "CQ POTA", and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. A QSO with K9IS in Wisconsin at 1610 UTC started a nice run of five QSOs that ended at 1617 UTC with K5KV in Texas. The run on 20m included QSOs with operators located in Colorado, Florida, Georgia (2), North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas (2), and Wisconsin.

Eric switched to 40m and, as he was looking for a clear frequency, he found KF8FCC performing an activation of Iron Belle State Trail (US-13184) in Michigan and a QSO was completed at 1619 UTC. Eric found himself a clear frequency and began calling "CQ POTA". His first QSO in this run came at 1623 UTC with WB2FUV at Minnewaska State Park Preserve (US-5623) in New York. His second QSO came at 1625 UTC with N4TU who was atop a summit somewhere performing a SOTA activation. His third QSO came at 1626 UTC and was a second QSO with K9IS. His fourth and final QSO in the run came at 1628 UTC with KD2UBJ in New York.

Eric finished his operation by hunting for P2P QSOs and at 1634 UTC he made a P2P QSO on 20m with AE0YM at Standing Bear Lake State Recreation Area (US-5657) in Nebraska.

In all, Eric made sixteen QSOs including four P2P QSOs. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with 5w or less of output power.

Eric snapped some more photos, tore down his station, and re-packed his bicycle. While he chatted with a friendly couple visiting Athens from Kent, Ohio, he watched barn swallows feed their chicks in nests atop the Bulldog Shelter roof-beams, the Canada geese families, and a heron.

Eric began his ride back home at 1733 UTC, detouring to Athens Cycle Path bicycle shop (link) on the west side of Athens to ask them a couple of questions before finishing his ride home.

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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