by William Eric McFadden
From the Sunny Brook WMA website (such as it is):
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Open under statewide rules and regulations in effect for the county, except: Area may periodically close to public access due to future stream restoration construction. Closures will be marked through signage.
From the Daniel Boone NF website:
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Spread across 21 counties of eastern Kentucky, the Daniel Boone National Forest manages more than 708,000 acres of national forest system lands within a 2.1 million-acre proclamation boundary. From over 600 miles of trails to two federally recognized wildernesses and more than 250 recreation sites, the Daniel Boone National Forest provides countless opportunities to explore eastern Kentucky's landscape, heritage and culture.
Pictures
Description
On Sunday, November 30, 2025, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a two-fer activation of Sunny Brook Wildlife Management Area (US-10168) and Daniel Boone National Forest (US-4484) in Kentucky as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.
On the drive home from a family gathering in Versailles, Kentucky, the day before, and following a successful activation of Old Fort Harrod State Park, Eric McFadden stopped at Sunny Brook Wildlife Management Area for the two-fer activation. Eric was accompanied by his wife Vickie, his young grandchildren Archer and Thia, and his small dog Theo.
Eric and family arrived at the Sunny Brook Wildlife Management Area's sole parking area at about 1915 UTC, finding the lot to be unoccupied. Although the afternoon wasn't as cold and windy as the morning had been at Old Fort Harrod State Park, it was still cold enough that Eric chose to perform his operation inside the car. He deployed his Tufteln (link) EFRW as a 29' vertical supported on a 31' Jackite telescoping fiberglass mast in a drive-on base, placing two 17' counterpoise wires directly on the asphalt. Placing his Elecraft KX2 on his wife's Honda CR-V's passenger-side dashboard, Eric was on the air at 1930 UTC.
The Sunny Brook Wildlife Management Area and
Daniel Boone National Forest Access Point sign.
Eric's KX2 station inside the car.
Eric's mast and antenna (and Archer).
As he had hoped, Eric found he had cell-signal at this location, and he would be able to access POTA Spots to spot himself and to find Park-to-Park (P2P) QSO opportunities.
While Archer played with his foam glider, and while Thia and Theo-dog slept, Eric began his operation on 20m. Because it was CQ World Wide DX Contest weekend, he had to tune way up in the CW portion of the band to find himself a clear frequency to run. Eric began calling "CQ POTA" and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 1932 UTC with WD5JTZ in Louisiana. QSOs came steadily, with Eric's twelfth QSO coming at 1952 UTC with W7AQB at Powder Valley Nature Center State Conservation Area (US-11922) in Missouri. This run included QSOs with operators located in Delaware, Florida, Illinois (2), Louisiana (2), Missouri, Ontario, Texas (3), and Vermont.
Since they had hours yet to drive before reaching home, Eric ended his activation without trying to hunt for P2P QSOs or chase DX in the contest.
In all, Eric made twelve QSOs in just about a twenty minutes of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at five watts of output.
The single-lane bridge over
Triplett Creek at the WMA entrance.
Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program for an operation at Daniel Boone National Forest, KFF-4511.
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