by William Eric McFadden
From the state historical site website:
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Until the last few months of the Civil War, Fort Fisher kept North Carolina's port of Wilmington open to blockade-runners supplying necessary goods to Confederate armies inland. By 1865, the supply line through Wilmington was the last remaining supply route open to Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. When Ft. Fisher fell after a massive U.S. amphibious assault on January 15, 1865, its defeat helped seal the fate of the Confederacy.
Pictures
- "Welcome to Fort Fisher State Historic Site"
- The Visitor Center
- The Atlantic Ocean
- Wind- and salt-swept trees
- Views from Eric's operating position: the Atlantic Ocean | trees
- Eric's station
- Eric's mast and antenna
Description
On Monday, May 5, 2025, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Fort Fisher State Historical Site in North Carolina as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.
Following a visit to the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher with is wife Vickie, and following a successful activation of Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, performed an activation of the adjacent Fort Fisher State Historic Site.
Immediately after finishing their visit to Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, Eric and Vickie, drove less than a mile to the Fort Fisher State Historical Site. Eric hadn't done his homework and was startled to see that the Visitor was closed and the parking area in which he had planned to do his activation behind closed gates. (He knows now that the website clearly indicates the Visitor Center is closed on Mondays.) After exploring a bit, Eric found that the state historic site includes a parking lot, paths, and historic structures that are not are not made inaccessible by gates, and he decided he would hike along such a trail, parallel to the coast, into a shady glen located between the Visitor Center and the ocean for his activation. On the short hike, he would carry his KX2 Mini Travel Kit, his customized Goture Red Fox Super Hard 720 carbon-fiber mast, a spike to support the mast, his clipboard, a folding camp-chair, and a water bottle. (This sounds like a lot, but it wasn't hard to carry.)
"Welcome to Fort Fisher State Historic Site".
The new-in-2024 Visitor Center.
A view of the Atlantic Ocean.
Wind- and salt-swept trees.
Upon arriving at the shady grove of trees, Eric selected a level spot for his chair and deployed his Tufteln (link) 35' EFRW antenna as a sloper up to the top of the carbon-fiber mast which he leaned into a tree, placing a single 17' counterpoise wire directly on the ground. Placing his KX2 on the camp-chair's fold-up table, Eric was on the air at 1855 UTC.
Eric's KX2 station...
... and mast-supported antenna.
Eric found he had good cell-signal and would be able to spot himself on POTA Spots (link) and to use POTA Spots to identify possible park-to-park (P2P) QSO opportunities.
Despite seeing that the solar numbers were still poor (SFI=159, SN=99, A-Index=25, and K-Index=4), because of the ease with which he had validated his activation of Fort Fisher State Recreation Area only about a half-hour prior, Eric had had no expectation that he would have difficulty with this activation. However...
Eric began his operation on 40m. Finding himself a clear frequency to run, he began calling "CQ POTA", and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. Ten minutes of calling produces zero responses.
Switching to 20m, Eric found himself a clear frequency to run, began calling "CQ POTA", and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. His first QSO came at 1908 UTC with AG2O in New York. QSOs came slowly, with Eric's sixth QSO coming at 1922 UTC with VA2IDX who was activating Piémont-du-Mont-Saint-Hilaire Nature Reserve (CA-2189) in Quebec. During this run, Eric had to change frequency due to interference from digital signals, he took care to keep refreshing his spot on POTA Spots, and he paused to deploy two additional 17' counterpoise wires, hoping that reduced ground-losses would increase the QSO-rate. This run included the aforementioned P2P QSO and QSOs with operators located in Louisiana, Missouri, New York (2), Quebec, and Wisconsin.
The view from Eric's operating location: the Atlantic Ocean...
... and the tree-canopy.
After seven additional minutes of fruitless calling on 20m, Eric switched to 30m. Finding himself a clear frequency to run, he began calling "CQ POTA", and self-spotted himself on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run came at 1932 UTC with KN4JN in Florida. This was followed at 1933 UTC by a QSO with W4GSS in Georgia.
With only eight QSOs in the log, Eric decided his best bet would be to hunt for P2P QSOs.
At 1938 UTC, he made a P2P QSO on 40m with N4NTO who was activating Tar River State Game Land (US-6956) in North Carolina.
At 1944 UTC, he made a P2P QSO on 20m with W4ARB who was activating Fort Gaines National Historic Site (US-0042) in Alabama.
At 1947 UTC, he made a P2P QSO on 20m with AB9CA who was activating Dunes Prairie State Nature Preserve (US-4169) in Indiana.
Finally, at 1954 UTC, he made a P2P QSO on 30m with K7GUD who was activating Shenandoah National Park (US-0064) in Virginia
In all, Eric made twelve QSOs in just about an hour of on-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made with five watts output.
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