by William Eric McFadden

From the recreation area website:

Steeped in natural and cultural history, Trine provides nearly 200 acres of rolling, wooded hills, open meadows, unique wetlands and a kettle lake. The natural features provide the perfect setting for a restored lakeside resort from yesteryear, plus a new meeting and conference facility, a casual boating and fishing center, picnic areas, and trails for hiking and biking.

Pictures

The park sign
Eric's station
Eric's view of Gentian Lake
The Welcome Center
Swans on Gentian Lake

Description

On Friday, March 14, 2025, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Trine at Pokagon State Recreation Area (US-4182) in Indiana as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

On the drive home from a two-day work conference in Chicago, and following a successful two-fer activation of the nearby Pokagon State Park and Potawatomi State Nature Preserve, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, performed an activation of Trine at Pokagon State Recreation Area. He was accompanied by his wife, Vickie.

Eric and Vickie arrived at Trine at Pokagon at about 1515 UTC and found their way to the Welcome Center parking lot. Eric quickly deployed his 28½' end-fed random wire as a vertical on a 31' Jackite telescoping fiberglass mast in a drive-on base, placing three 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Placing his Elecraft KX2 on his folding camp-chair's flip-up table, Eric was on the air at 1530 UTC.

The Trine at Pokagon sign.


Eric's station at the Welcome Center.


Eric's view of Gentian Lake.

Despite feeling that he was in the middle of nowehere, Eric had good cell-signal and would be able to spot himself on POTA Spots (link) and to use POTA Spots to identify possible park-to-park (P2P) QSO opportunities.

Eric began his operation on 20m. Finding himself a clear frequency to run, Eric began calling "CQ POTA" and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 1532 UTC with KD5RXP in Nebraska. QSOs came quickly, with Eric's nineteenth QSO coming at 1547 UTC with KM4QNA in Alabama. This run included QSOs with operators located in Alabama (2), Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey (2), New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee (2), Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Thinking he was finished, Eric had just begun taking down his station, and had already put away one of his three counterpoise wires, when HamAlert on his smartphone chimed and he saw that Brian, K3ES, was performing an activation. Eric quickly tuned to Brian's frequency and at 1553 UTC he had a P2P QSO on 30m with K3ES who was activating PA 332 State Game Land (US-11247) in Pennsylvania.

In all, Eric made twenty QSOs in about twenty-four minutes of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with five watts output.

During his operation and afterwards, Eric and Vickie saw sandhill cranes and swans on Gentian Lake.

The Welcome Center.


A pair of swans on Gentian Lake.

Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program.

(return)