by William Eric McFadden
From the Old Fort Harrod State Park website:
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A full-scale replica of the fort built by James Harrod in 1774 is the centerpiece of Old Fort Harrod State Park in Harrodsburg, KY. Cabins and blockhouses are furnished with handmade utensils, furniture, crude tools, and implements used by the pioneers. The park complex also features the historic Mansion Museum, George Rogers Clark Federal Monument, Lincoln Marriage Temple, and oldest cemetery west of the Alleghenies. The Lincoln Marriage Temple is one of the stops along Kentucky's Lincoln Heritage Trail.
Pictures
Description
On Sunday, November 30, 2025, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed an activation of Old Harrod State Park (US-1269) in Kentucky as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.
Following a family gathering the day before in Versailles, Kentucky, and a night spent at a motel in Harrodsburg, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, performed the activation of Old Fort Harrod State Park. Eric was accompanied by his wife Vickie, his young grandchildren Archer and Thia, and his small dog Theo.
Eric and family arrived at Old Fort Harrod State Park about 1500 UTC. Eric had hoped that Fort Harrod and the Mansion Museum would be open for tours but, while the grounds were open to visitors, the fort and museum were not open. Finding himself a place to set up his station in the empty parking lot was easy, and Eric selected a spot in one corner of the lot. The morning was cold and bitingly windy, so 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 1512 UTC.
Eric's KX2 station inside the CR-V.
As he had expected he would, 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 Vickie and Archer braved the cold wind to explore the park's seasonal community Christmas Tree display, and while Thia and Theo-dog slept in the back of the car, Eric began his operation on 20m and was surprised to discover that it was CQ World Wide DX Contest weekend. After finding himself a clear frequency to run way up in the CW portion of the band, Eric self-spotted himself on POTA Spots and began to call "CQ POTA". His first QSO came at 1517 UTC with K9IS in Wisconsin. QSOs came steadily, with Eric's fourteenth QSO coming at 1537 UTC with KA5TXN in Texas. This run included a P2P QSO with K9DY at Koreshan State Historic Site (US-3633) in Florida, a P2P QSO with KA5TXN at Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site (US-6553), and QSOs with operators located in Arkansas, Florida (4), Idaho, Louisiana, Maryland, New York (2), South Carolina, Texas (2), and Wisconsin.
By this point, Archer was cold and fussy, and Thia was awake and fussy, so Eric ended his activation without trying to hunt for P2P QSOs or chase DX in the contest.
In all, Eric made fourteen 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.
Following station tear-down, Eric braved the cold wind to snap some photos of the state park.
Fort Harrod.
The 1934 George Rogers Clark Federal
Monument by sculptor Ulric Ellerhusen: "The
First Permanent Settlement of the West".
Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program for an operation at Old Fort Harrod State Park, KFF-1269.
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