by William Eric McFadden
From the park's website:
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Throughout his life, Charles Young overcame countless obstacles in his ascent to prominence. In spite of overt racism and stifling inequality, Young rose through the military ranks to become one of the most respected leaders of his time. A well-rounded man with a steadfast devotion to duty, Young led by example and inspired a generation of new leaders.
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Description
On Sunday, December 1, 2019, two members of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team
performed a successful activation of Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Ohio as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link)
program. Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, and Miles McFadden, KD8KNC, were joined by Richard Kice, KC8YTV, in their visit to the national
monument. This activation was the fourth of five activations to be made over two days and 624 miles of driving, the first being
the activation of William Howard Taft National Historic Site the day before (link),
the second being the activation of Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park (link),
and the third being the activation of Sycamore State Park (link).
Eric and Miles arrived at Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument under gray and rainy skies at about 1915 UTC to find Richard already there and the Visitor Center to be closed. Because of the wind and rain, Eric chose to operate in the car and he and Miles deployed the now-short-by-ten-inches 28½' wire vertical on the 31' Jackite telescoping fiberglass mast supported on the drive-on mount, the KX3 was hung on the car's glove-box door, and Eric was on the air at 1932 UTC. (Why was the antenna short? See the report on the activation at Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park (link).) Richard, who has a growing interest in participting in POTA, had hoped to attempt an activation of the site using his portable HF station but could find no available power outlets on the outside of the building so he instead joined Eric and Miles in the McFadden car to watch Eric operate.
Starting on 80m, Eric's first and only QSO on 80m came at 1935 UTC with Eric's good friend and fellow SEORAT-member K8RAT. After subsequent calls of "CQ POTA" went unanswered, Eric switched to 40m at 1939 UTC.
Eric's first QSO on 40m came almost immediately at 1940 UTC with K4LJB. QSOs on 40m came steadily with Eric's thirteenth QSO on 40m coming at 2001 UTC with K0LAF. After subsequent calls of "CQ POTA" went unanswered, Eric switched to 20m at 2003 UTC.
On 20m, Eric's first QSO was with WB2WFJ at 2005 UTC. Eric's fifth QSO on 20m came at 2016 UTC with WI1G.
In all, Eric made nineteen QSOs in about forty-five minutes. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with a power output of five watts.
Richard seemed impressed with how well the Elecraft KX3 running 5-watts and the simple antenna worked together to make QSOs. Eric expects he'll soon seem "KC8YTV" listed on the POTA Activator Leaderboard.
Miles did not operate but helped with navigation and helped with station set-up and tear-down.
Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program although he didn't make enough QSOs to to achieve a valid activation within the program which requires 44 QSOs be made. However, the WWFF program allows these 44 QSOs be made over any number of visits so a valid activation within WWFF is still possible if subsequent visits to the park are made.
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