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| KB9BVN Setting up at Brown County State Park |
Got up this morning, this third day of being retired, and checked the weather while waiting on my coffee to be ready. The weather report said something about it being sunny and 52F by noon. It's JANUARY in Indiana...how could this be possible? As I read on I see that tomorrow the forecast says rain all day, temperatures dropping back to normal. I then decided I would take advantage and go outdoors and enjoy it while it was here.
Brown County State Park is about an hour due south of me, it is located just outside of Nashville Indiana off State Road 135, otherwise known as the Bill Monroe Memorial Highway. Bill Monroe, the father of Bluegrass Music, used to have a bluegrass music festival in Bean Blossom Indiana every year. Bean Blossom is the next big town north of Nashville. It's a very scenic drive, and a lot of winding roads so you have to pay attention if'n you don't want to end up in the holler.
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| At Bean Blossom Overlook...with Morgantown Indiana in the background |
Once I finally arrived at the park, I was all ready to show off my brand new annual park pass...but the gatehouse was empty, and the sign said PARK OPEN, NO GATE FEE TODAY. Well maybe next time I can show them. Afterall it IS January.
I entered via the west gate and drove up to the West Lookout and setup the Alex Loop and the KX-2 on a conveniently placed picnic table. It tuned up 1:1 pretty quick and I was on the air by 11:50AM.
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| Tuned up and ready on 14047 Khz |
After about 15 minutes I had five contacts in the logbook. The antenna was working great, the radio was doing great, and it was very nice operating today, even though the park was pretty much empty except for a few mountain bikers and one or two hikers.
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| Making contacts was proving to be pretty easy today |
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| Alex Loop deployed on top of the picnic table |
After I had 15 logged, I took the station down and drove over to the park office to see if I could pick up a map. To my surprise I was informed by Mr. Ranger that the Indiana DNR no longer hands out FREE park maps, they now cost ONE DOLLAR. I had no cash so we decided to charge a dollar to my credit card. With map in hand I was looking for any hiking trail not marked RUGGED. I have been working from home for 5 years, I am working on getting my sea legs back and figured a nice walk in the woods today would be a good way to get there. I found a nice, mostly flat trail behind the park office and spent about an hour walking around the woods, and contemplating the potential beauty of the place if Spring ever gets here. They had a terrific storm here a few weeks ago, high winds, bitter cold, and snow. Lot's of fallen tress right now ar eblocking a few of the roads in the park. I was wanting to go activate the Ten O'Clock Treaty Line Nature Preserve, but it was closed off due to downed trees.
So after my walk in the woods, I found a nice high ridge with a picnic table and setup the station again while enjoying a lunch of sardines, ham sandwich, and diet pop.
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| Lunch in the woods, can't be beat! |
I worked another six or seven contacts while I enjoyed a leisurely lunch. I even managed to work M5EEE in England! Did I mention I was using a magnetic loop antenna and about 8 or 9 watts? I even plugged in the microphone and tried calling CQ POTA a few times but the antenna was getting wonky so I just decided to sit there, finish eating, and then took the station apart and headed home.
All in all I logged 22 contacts. It was a great day to be outdoors. Very possible I won't be able to do this again until late February or into March....depending on the midwest weather.
Here's what the contact map looked like for today.
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| KB9BVN Contact Map for 01/07/2026 from Brown County State Park |
And this is what I looked like on the Reverse Beacon Network
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| Stations hearing my call, and the signal to noise ratio |
Well this may be it for awhile, I hope not, but we still have a lot of winter left here. Hope to catch you on the air sometime!
de KB9BVN - Brian
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