by William Eric McFadden

Pictures

Description

Eric's station -- click to enlarge One member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team succeeded in activating William Howard Taft National Historical Site as part of the ARRL's year-long National Parks on the Air (link). Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, performed a solo activation of William Howard Taft National Historic Site, NS78 (link) in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Upon arriving at the park, Eric spoke with the ranger and Eric stamped his Passport 2016. Eric was given permission to set up in the overflow parking area behind the historic Taft house and Education Center.

As at previous activations, Eric's station consisted of his Enhanced KX3 Travel Kit, his MFJ-1910 33' fiberglass telescoping mast, and a custom clipboard. Because of the temperature (39°F), Eric chose to set up the transceivers in the car. For this operation, Eric powered his transceiver with the car's accessory power socket. Eric was on the air by 2111 UTC.

Eric operated only on 40m and his first QSO came almost immediately at 2112 UTC with WK2S. QSOs came continuously with Eric's 30th and final QSO coming at 2136 UTC with W0YES. All of Eric's QSOs were CW made at the 5-watt level.

Map:

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