Amateur Radio Station WD8RIF | POTA Activation Big Bone Lick State Historic Site

On Friday, November 29, 2024, two members of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful two-fer activation of Big Bone Lick State Historic Site (US-3779) and Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail (US-4572) in Kentucky as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

While enroute to Versailles, Kentucky, for the annual family Thanksgiving get-together, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, and Miles McFadden, KD8KNC, stopped at Big Bone Lick State Historic Site for the two-fer activation. They were accompanied by Vickie McFadden, KC8MAJ, and the two small dogs Ginny and Theo.

The group arrived at the museum at Big Bone Lick at about 1900 UTC. Upon discovering that the museum was to close within the hour, Eric, Miles, and Vickie (and the dogs) made a quick tour of the excellent museum before attempting the activation.

The Lewis & Clark historical marker at the museum.

A recreation of Pleistocene life outside the museum.

A bison inside the museum.

A fossilized mammoth skull.

Eric had hoped the weather would allow him to hike with his KH1 Micro Travel Kit to the picnic area overlooking the bison herd and operate there, but with a temperature just above freezing and winds gusting over 20mph, Eric decided the better option was to operate inside the car for protection against the elements. Eric and Miles deployed a 28½' end-fed wire supported as a vertical on a Jackite 31' telescoping fiberglass mast on a drive-on base, laying three 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Mounting his Elecraft KX2 on the car's dashboard, Eric was on air at 1942 UTC.

As he had hoped, Eric did have a wee bit of cell-signal at this location and he would be able to access POTA Spots to spot himself, if necessary, and to find Park-to-Park (P2P) QSO opportunities.

Eric began his operation on 20m and, when he first tuned to that band, the band's noise floor was so low he initially thought he was having a radio or an antenna problem. Finding himself a clear frequency to run, he began calling "CQ POTA", and was quickly auto-spotted on POTA Spots. Eric's first QSO came at 1944 UTC with WA2QLK in New Jersey. Apparently, Eric wasn't experiencing radio or antenna problems because QSOs on 20m came very quickly, with his twenty-fourth QSO coming at 2007 UTC with N9EAJ in Wisconsin. This run included a P2P QSO with KJ7RPL at Milo McIver State Park (US-2843) in Oregon and QSOs with operators located in New Jersey, Missouri (2), Idaho, South Carolina, Ontario, Kentucky, Florida (2), Maryland, Texas, Virginia (4), Oregon, Minnesota (2), Illinois, Iowa, Vermont, Rhode Island, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Switching to 40m, Eric found himself a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and was again auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run came at 2011 UTC with W8MND in Michigan. QSOs came quickly, with Eric's fifth QSO on this band coming at 2015 UTC with K3ES in Pennsylvania. This run included QSO with operators located in Michigan, Pennsylvania (2), Kentucky, and Ohio.

In all, Eric made twenty-nine QSOs, including one P2P QSO, in just over thirty minutes of on-air time.

Miles did not operate but helped with station set-up and tear-down, and did some of the activation photography. (While Eric was operating, Miles, Vickie, and the dogs had braved the bitterly cold wind and made the short hike to see the bison herd.)

Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program for an operation at Big Bone Lick State Historic Site, KFF-3779.