Yesterday was just a beautiful Fall day in Indiana, So I packed up my gear and headed out to the Morgan Monroe State Forest just south of Martinsville IN off Interstate 69.
For those of you that don't know, on the evening of June 17th, 2026, one or possibly two tornadoes rated as EF2 or EF3 ripped through the state forest. By the time the storm ended, the state forest faced 850 acres of downed mature trees. Also lost in the storm was the Boy Scout shelter, the Bryant Creek Lake Shelter, and several trails and roads were left impassable. Four months later, I was still shocked at how much damage is still visible in the park.
 |
| Tornado Path through Forest |
Fortunately the state forest here is about 24,500 acres, so there is still an amazing amount of things you can do here. Many of the popular hiking trails are closed but many are still open. The most popular trail is probably the Low-Gap trail (9.6 miles - rugged) and perhaps the Tecumseh Trail (40 miles with the trailhead here in MMSF).
There are still two of the largest campgrounds open, Mason Ridge, and Oak Ridge. There is also back country camping permitted in a 1600 acre Wilderness Area set aside for backpackers and hikers.
So I drove around for a bit, taking in all the sites, and enjoying the sweatshirt weather and bright Autumn sunshine. I finally landed at the playground area next to the fire tower and the Mason Ridge camping area. It was completely empty, I had the place to myself, including a very nice picnic table to operate from.
 |
| Firetower at MMSF |
The fire tower is fenced in and locked so I don't think it's open to the public like the towers found in most of our State Parks. I'd love to get a chance to operate from up there except I don't get along with heights too well...not as sure footed as I once was, and besides, I am totally a land based mammal.
So I got the SUV parked and installed the hitch mount for my Eagle One vertical. That all went well and according to plan, which is not what I normally run in to. This made me wonder if Murphy was about, but things continued to go smoothly. I attached a couple of ground radials that I use when deploying in this manner.
After stringing the coax over to the operating position on the picnic table, I connected the antenna and fired up the KX-2. The first thing I did was check the POTA spots page to see if maybe I could hunt a few parks before getting started. I tried in vain on 40m and 20m and I was not able to make a single Park to Park contact in hunt mode.
Next I tuned around on 20m to find a quiet spot, I was worried that the band might not be cooperating again today since I was not able to raise any parks while hunting. I ended up on 14039 Khz and started calling CQ POTA. I had a contact a minute for the first five minutes. So the band was open. I logged TX, FL, NH, and Ontario right off the bat.
 |
| KX-2 tuned to 14039 Khz - worked like a dream |
 |
| The infamous POTA mobile...great cell coverage BTW...I wonder why |
By the time I wrapped up, maybe an hour later I had sixteen contacts in the log, ten are required to be a successful activation. My best DX contact was with SQ9JS in Poland! He must have amazing ears to hear my 10w signal from the park in Poland. He gave me a reception report of 319. This means he was barely receiving me, my signal strength was very low, and my CW tone was stable and unwavering. Most of my contacts today were TX, FL, and MN.
 |
| Map of my contacts today - I was very happy to work Poland! |
Winter is coming, and we won't be having a ton of days like this, so when one comes along, take advantage and get outdoors. The fresh air does wonders for the daily doldrums of day to day working life. (I'm retired, every day is Saturday)
I think the next time I go out I will bring my new Pebble HF radio and see if I can get 10 contacts using it and my vertical. That should be fun!
Until the next time...73 and best DX to you and your shack.
de KB9BVN
Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment