by William Eric McFadden

From the park's website:

When Daniel Boone and his men reached the Kentucky River on April 1, 1775, they quickly moved to establish Kentucky's second settlement – the site still known as Fort Boonesborough. Fort Boonesborough has been reconstructed as a working fort complete with cabins, blockhouses and furnishings. 18th century life skills and period craft demonstrations bring history to life for all ages. New archaeological findings have supplied even more information which can be read about on the original fort's new interpretive signage.

Pictures

Bonus Pictures: Boone Forest Rally

Description

On Sunday, September 24, 2023, two members of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Fort Boonesborough State Park in Kentucky as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.

On their way home following two days working as radio operators at the Boone Forest Rally in McKee, Kentucky, Eric and Miles stopped at Fort Boonesborough State Park for a quick POTA activation.

Arriving at the Fort Boonesborough parking area about 1330 UTC, Eric selected an empty parking space at the far end of the parking lot. He and Miles deployed the 28½' wire vertical on the 31' Jackite telescoping fiberglass mast on a drive-on mount. Placing his Elecraft KX3 on the his folding camp-chair's flip-up table, Eric was on the air at 1349 UTC.

Eric operating
A study in lens-flare: Eric operating;
photo by Miles McFadden

Eric operating
Eric operating;
photo by Miles McFadden

Eric found he had good cell-signal at this location, and he would be able 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 frequency, Eric began calling CQ, and was quickly auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 1351 UTC with KQ1P in Maine. QSOs came quickly, with Eric's sixteenth QSO coming at 1408 UTC with KQ4CW in Virginia. This run included a P2P QSO with VE2TH at Parc de la Plage-Jacques-Cartier Regional Park (VE-0970) in Quebec and QSOs with operators located in Maine, Florida (2), Texas (2), Virginia (2), Arkansas, New York (2), Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Quebec, Missouri, Nebraska, and New Jersey.

Because of his desire to tour the fort, his plan to hike into Natural Bridge State Park for an activation, and the need to drive 200+ miles to get home, Eric finished his activation with sixteen QSOs. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with five watts output.

Miles did not operate but helped with station set-up and tear-down, and he did much of the activation photography.

After station tear-down, Eric and Miles did a quick tour of Fort Boonesborough.

Fort Boonesborough
Fort Boonesborough: outside the stockade

Fort Boonesborough
Fort Boonesborough: inside the stockade

Fort Boonesborough
Fort Boonesborough: inside the stockade

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

Bonus Photos: Boone Forest Rally

Patrick Gruszka / Florian Barral
The Patrick Gruszka / Florian Barral / Green APU
Hyundai i20 at Service on Friday, September 22.

Conner Martell / Keaton Williams
Conner Martell and Keaton Williams in the Vermont
Sports Car Subaru WRX STI at the flying-finish of
practice stage, "Shakedown", on Friday, September 22.
Martell / Williams went on to win class O4WD and overall.

Patrick Gruszka / Florian Barral
Patrick Gruszka and Florian Barral in the Green APU
Hyundai i20 at the flying-finish of practice stage,
"Shakedown", on Friday, September 22.

Pat Moro / Ole Holter
Pat Moro / Ole Holter in the PMR Motorsport's AWD,
LS1-powered, Chevrolet Sonic starting stage 3,
"The Anderson 2", on Saturday, September 23.

(return)