by William Eric McFadden
From the Shawnee State Forest's website:
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Shawnee State Forest, also called "The Little Smokies of Ohio," has developed into the largest of Ohio's state forests with more than 60,000 acres. This working forest is managed to provide a variety of multiple uses on a sustained yield basis: Timber harvesting, tree planting, wildlife habitat, forestry research, watershed and soil protection, and production of tree seeds.
During the spring and fall forest fire danger periods, state forest crews detect and suppress wildfires that occur on state and private lands within the surrounding protection area.
Nearly 8,000 acres of the forest have been designated as wilderness. Timber is not managed and public motorized travel has been eliminated in the wilderness area.
From the American Rally Association (ARA) website:
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Get ready to feel the rush of roaring engines, the thrill of flying gravel, and the excitement of one of the most electrifying motorsport events in the country! From June 12-14, 2025, the Southern Ohio Forest Rally (SOFR) will transform the rolling hills and forests of Southern Ohio into a high-octane playground for rally enthusiasts, families, and adventure seekers alike.
Pictures
Description
On Friday, June 13, 2025, two members of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Shawnee State Forest in Ohio as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.
While providing communications support to the American Rally Association's Southern Ohio Forest Rally (SOFR, info) in Shawnee State Forest, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, performed his activation between the runnings of his assigned special stages. Eric was accompanied by Miles McFadden, KD8KNC, who was working as a communicator on the same two stages.
Eric had been assigned the position of "Start Radio" at the start control of Special Stage 4 ("Pink Pony Club") and Special Stage 8 ("Pink Pony Club 2") at the Shawnee State Forest Horse Camp, and Miles had been assigned the position of "Medical Radio" at the same start control. With over two hours in the rally schedule between the departure of the last car onto Special Stage 4 and the scheduled arrival of the first car onto Special Stage 8, Eric should have had plenty of time to complete a POTA activation of Shawnee State Forest—plenty of time, that is, if HF propagation hadn't been almost wiped out by a severe solar storm caused by a co-rotating interaction region on the sun.
Eric had absolutely no cell-signal at this location, so he would be unable to spot himself on POTA Spots (link) or to use POTA Spots to identify possible park-to-park (P2P) QSO opportunities. Having anticipated this situation, he had earlier announced his activation on POTA Spots so that he might be auto-spotted when he began calling CQ.
Eric had brought with him his KX2 Mini Travel Kit and his KH1 Micro Travel Kit. Because of the poor propagation, Eric decided to operate initially as a hunter, tuning the bands, looking for stations to work, not announcing that he was at a park, and not submitting a log to POTA if he failed to validate his activation by making ten QSOs. For this operation, he chose to use his KX2 because of its superior user-interface, i.e., its bigger display and tuning knob. Eric deployed his Tufteln (link) 35' end-fed random wire (EFRW) as a sloper to the top of his Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast held upright on a spike, and he placed the three counterpoise wires directly on the ground. Placing his Elecraft KX2 on his folding table, adjacent to the 2m go-box he had been using for the SOFR net, Eric was on the air at 1740 UTC.
The SS4/8 Start Control as viewed by the rally
competitors. The Start Control Radio is on the left,
and the Start Control Timing Crew are on the right.
Eric operates POTA; photos by Miles McFadden.
Eric's station.
Eric began his operation by tuning through the 40, 30, 20, 17, and 15m bands, and wasn't terribly surprised to find all of these bands to be almost completely dead. The 20m band seeming to be the least dead, Eric started there, tuning the CW sub-band from bottom to top, and from top to bottom, and working whomever he could. He changed to 40m at one point, but was able to make only a single QSO there. When he had logged eight QSOs, and needed only two to validate his activation, he chose a 20m frequency and began calling "CQ POTA", but several minutes of calling produced no responses whatsoever. With only a few minutes left before he would have to resume his duties as start radio, he tuned through 20m again and found one pair of operators who were taking turns at the key; by working these two in turn, Eric made his ninth and tenth QSOs and validated his activation, mere minutes before the first competitors were to arrive at the start control for "Pink Pony Club 2".
Time Band Callsign RST(s) RST(r) SPC Notes 1745 20m WB0RLJ 579 329 NE US-4010 1747 20m K0AJW 579 569 ND Lewis & Clark Trail on the Air 1804 40m K4MI 579 569 VA 1814 20m K2JVB 599 579 NY US-0481 1828 20m AE1MV 559 559 VT US-3140 1840 20m N4SSD 599 599 NC US-6847 1901 20m WN2G 539 339 NY 1904 20m AF5DM 599 449 WI US-9805 1932 20m K7SHR 579 559 WY US-6124 1933 20m KE8EON 579 559 WY US-6124
Gallery: Southern Ohio Forest Rally, Shawnee State Forest (June 13), SS4/8
National ARA champions Brandon Semenuk
and Keaton Williams negotiate their way through
the chicane on the approach to the start in the
Vermont Sports Car O4WD Subaru WRX.
Brandon Semenuk and Keaton Williams at the start.
Michael Tirpak and Christopher Rotolo in their
beautiful L4WD 1993 Ford Escort RS Cosworth.
Seamus Burke and Gary McElhinney in the lovely
O2WD V8-powered 1976 Ford Escort MK2.
Bonus Gallery: Southern Ohio Forest Rally, Zaleski State Forest (June 14), SS13/18
On Saturday, Eric and Miles worked radio at the start control of Special Stage 4 ("Irish Ridge") and Special Stage 8 ("Irish Ridge 2") in Zaleski State Forest. Eric had hoped to perform an activation of Zaleski State Forest in the interval between the two stages but, because the propagation conditions were even worse on Saturday than they had been on Friday, Eric decided against attempting perform an activation.
A triptych: National ARA champions Brandon Semenuk
and Keaton Williams start Irish Ridge; the elapsed time
between the three exposures was about three seconds.
Michael Hooper and Michael Hordijk
in a 2007 O2WD Lexus IS350.
Seamus Burke and Gary McElhinney in the
O2WD V8-powered 1976 Ford Escort MK2.
Michael Tirpak and Christopher Rotolo in the
lovely L4WD 1993 Ford Escort RS Cosworth.
(Yes, Eric does seem to like the vintage rally cars...)
(return)