Amateur Radio Station WD8RIF | POTA Activation Waveland State Historic Site

On Saturday, June 29, 2019, two members of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Waveland State Historic Site near Lexington, Kentucky as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program. Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, and Miles McFadden, KD8KNC, visited the park on a hot, humid afternoon accompanied by Vickie McFadden, KC8MAJ, and the family's two small dogs, Theo and Mindy, while in Kentucky for the annual McFadden Family Reunion.

The quintet arrived at Waveland State Historic Site at about 1815 UTC. Leaving the dogs with the two men, Vickie left to explore the park on foot while Eric and Miles scouted the large yard near the parking lot for a suitable area to deploy Eric's station. Eric chose a nicely shaded picnic table that was about as far from the antebellum mansion as possible. Choosing not to drive stakes into the ground to stabilize his mast, Eric bungeed his MFJ-1910 33' fiberglass mast to the a fence and deployed his 28½'end-fed wire as a sloper with three 17' radials. Eric was on the air by 1832 UTC.

While Miles spotted Eric to the POTA Spots website (link), Eric began operations on 40m. His first QSO came with VE3LDT at 1848 UTC. QSOs came steadily, if not quickly, with Eric's ninth QSO on 40m coming at 1903 UTC with Eric's good friend and POTA-Hunter K8RAT. Switching to 30m at 1911 UTC, Eric made a QSO with W0YJT at 1917 UTC and a QSO with N2ESE at 1920 UTC. Finally, switching to 20m at 1921 UTC, Eric made a QSO with W0MNA at 1926 UTC.

By this time, Vickie was finished with her walking tour of the grounds and the dogs needed to get out of the heat so, with twelve QSOs in the log, Eric announced he was going QRT and he and Miles took down and packed up the station.

Eric would have enjoyed spending more time at Waveland State Historic Site and learning more about pre-Civil War life in Kentucky. Perhaps a second visit can be made on another trip to Lexington.

All Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at the 5-watt level. Miles didn't operate but did much of the expedition photography, took care of the dogs, helped with set-up and tear-down, and helped with navigation.

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.