by William Eric McFadden
From the park website:
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The Tom Dorman State Nature Preserve is one of the largest protected natural areas in the Kentucky River Palisades region. Several rare plants are located on the limestone cliffs including starry cleft phlox (Phlox bifida var. stellaria) and Eggleston's violet (Viola septemloba var. egglestonii).
Pictures
Description
On Tuesday, June 2, 2026, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful activation of Lexington River Palisades / Tom Dorman State Nature Preserve (US-7958) as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program.
Following a funeral service for an uncle (obituary) at the adjacent Camp Nelson National Cemetery, Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, performed a POTA activation of Kentucky River Palisades / Tom Dorman State Nature Preserve. Eric was accompanied by his wife Vickie.
Eric and Vickie arrived at the state nature preserve's parking area off of US-27 at about 1915 UTC, finding the parking area to be unoccupied. After choosing a spot that offered nice shade while not preventing him from extending a mast, Eric deployed his Tufteln (link) EFRW as a 29' vertical suspended on a 31' Jackite telescoping fiberglass mast in a drive-on base, placing two 17' counterpoise wires directly on the ground, and he placed his Elecraft KX2 on his folding camp-chair's flip-up table.
The Tom Dorman State Nature
Preserve infomation kiosk.
The trail leading into the Tom
Dorman State Nature Preserve.
Eric's Elecraft KX2 station.
Eric's mast and antenna.
Eric had forgotten to announce his activation and was disappointed when he discovered the area had almost no cell signal. The POTA Spots website (link) was very slow to load, but eventually it did. Because he has often had trouble placing an initial self-spot using his smartphone when cell-signal is weak, Eric thought to try to announce his activation, instead, and rely on an auto-spot once the Reverse Beacon Network heard him calling "CQ". However, when he entered the park designator "US-1985", he saw a pop-up indicating this was an inactive unit. He didn't have enough cell signal to do a search on POTA Spots himself, but he was able to send and receive texts, and he texted his friends K4SWL and K8RAT to ask them to confirm the unit designator. K4SWL eventually figured out that the correct designator was "US-7958" and was able to place a spot for Eric. (Thanks, Tom!)
Eric began his operation on 20m. His first QSO came at 1942 UTC with KU4BB in Virginia. QSOs came steadily, with Eric's tenth QSO coming at 2013 UTC with WB2FUE in Pennsylvania. This run included QSOs with operators located in Connecticut, Florida (3) Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania (2), and Virginia.
Switching to 40m, Eric found a clear frequency, began to call "CQ POTA", and was auto-spotted on POTA Spots. His first QSO in this run came at 2016 UTC with WA3TVH in Pennsylvania. This was followed at 2020 UTC by a QSO with Eric's friend K4SWL in North Carolina.
In all, Eric made twelve QSOs in about forty minutes of on-the-air time. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and we made with 5w of output power.
Hoping to be able to visit Camp Nelson National Monument just up the road, Eric tore down his station and re-packed the car.
Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program for an operation at Kentucky River Palisades, KFF-6885.
(return)