Amateur Radio Station WD8RIF | POTA Activation Jesse Owens State Park

On Saturday, September, 2025, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Jesse Owens State Park in Ohio as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

Following a visit with his wife, Vickie, to The Wilds (link) for a "Rhino Encounter" and an "open-air tour", Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, performed the activation of Jesse Owens State Park & Wildlife Area at the Miners Memorial Park (link).

Eric and Vickie arrived at The Wilds in time for their noon Rhino Encounter (link) and also bought tickets for the 1:30pm open-air tour.

The weather for the Rhino Encounter was absolutely perfect but, even though the weather forecast called for no chance of rain, rain actually began to fall during the open-air tour. Fortunately, the open-air bus included a canopy which kept (most of) the rain off. Despite the rain, the open-air tour was fun, but Eric and Vickie were both disappointed that they weren't able see any giraffes, the giraffe herd already having been placed in the giraffe barn for the winter season.

The short drive from The Wilds to the Miners Memorial Park (and Big Muskie's Bucket) on the spectacularly twisty Ohio SR-248 took place during falling rain. Upon arriving at the Miners Memorial Park, Eric found that the picnic shelter nearest Big Muskie's Bucket was empty and he got his gear out of the car to began setting up his station in the shelter. However, at the same time, Vickie discovered she had dropped her glasses somewhere at The Wilds, so Eric packed his gear back into the car and drove Vickie back (in the rain, on spectacular twisty SR-248) to The Wilds to find her glasses at lost-and-found, and then drove back (in the rain, on spectacular twisty SR-248) to the Miners Memorial Park, where the picnic shelter that had earlier been empty was now providing shelter from the rain for two motorcyclists and their two motorcycles.

Looking around, Eric noticed a second picnic shelter at the Miners Memorial Park, about a hundred yards away, on the other side of the Big Muskie Bucket. Upon arriving at the second picnic shelter, Eric found it to be sheltering a couple and their Vanderhall Carmel three-wheeler from the rain. He asked the couple if he could crash their party and they graciously made room for him under the shelter roof. While Eric set up his station, he chatted with the couple and learned that they had driven down from Michigan to drive the amazing roads in southeastern Ohio. When the unexpected rain had arrived, the couple had been working their way to West Virginia to explore the amazing roads in the Mountain State.

Because the unexpected rain had brought with it local thunder, Eric decided against deploying a wire antenna. Instead, he chose to operate with his Elecraft KH1 with its 48" telescoping whip antenna and 13' counterpoise wire, a Tufteln (link) Right Angle Antenna Adapter with Stand, and a Whiterook MK-33 single-lever CW paddle. Eric was on the air at 2128 UTC.

Eric found that he had good cell-signal and would be able to access POTA Spots (link) to spot himself and to look for Park-to-Park (P2P) QSO opportunities.

Given the decent solar indices (SFI 166, SN 155, A-Index 4, K-Index 0), Eric expected this activation to be smooth sailing.

Eric began his operations on 20m. After finding himself a clear frequency to run, he began calling "CQ POTA" and was quickly auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 2130 UTC with SM3NRY in Sweden. (One look at the photos on SM3NRY's QRZ page (link) will quickly suggest that Thomas was doing the heavy lifting in this QSO!). QSOs came slowly, if steadily, with Eric's fifth QSO coming at 2141 UTC with K4ARQ in Florida. This run included the aforementioned QSO with Thomas in Sweden, a two-fer P2P QSO with K3MTO who was activating Jonathan Dickinson State Park (US-1887) and Loxahatchee River National Wild and Scenic River (US-6281) in Florida, and QSOs with operators located in Alabama, Florida (2), and Vermont.

Pausing to hunt for P2P QSOs, at 2148 UTC Eric made a P2P QSO on 20m with K4NYX who was activating Savannas Preserve State Park (US-3654) in Florida.

Returning to run a frequency on 20m, Eric's first QSO in this second run came at 2150 UTC with K4INA in Florida. At this point, Eric was forced to move to another frequency when other signals appeared on the frequency he had been running. At 2208 UTC, Eric worked K1RDD in Massachusetts, and 2210 UTC he worked stalwart hunter AA5UZ in Louisiana.

Needing just one more QSO to validate his activation, Eric again hunted for P2P QSOs, and at 2216 UTC he made a P2P QSO on 20m with WB4IT who was activating St. Joseph Peninsula State Park (US-1918) in Florida. Never being satisfied with only ten QSOs, Eric kept hunting, and at 2220 UTC he made his eleventh QSO, a P2P QSO on 20m with WB0YDF who was activating Tiger Marsh Wildlife Management Area (US-12625) in Minnesota.

In all, Eric made eleven QSOs, including five P2P QSOs, in fifty-two minutes of time on the air. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at the 5-watt level.

By the time Eric had finished his operation and packed up his station, the rain had stopped, and he was able to explore Miners Memorial Park and take photos.

Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program for Jesse Owens State Park, KFF-4620.