Although this was not a IEN sponsored event I had a ton of fun working the event with my friends at Hendricks County Amateur Radio Soceity.
Our call sign was K9W.
I arrived early in the morning and I was able to get my rope stuck in the tree. Tom WA9YI was able to help get the rope out of the tree using military grade portable antenna mast.
We used a 20/40 fanned dipole in an inverted V style.
The radio for that antenna was a FT-897 and it had a manual tuner to help keep SWR down.
The other radio was a KX3 and it operated CW and digital modes later in the day using a Buddy stick and a Buddy Pole.
About the event:
Hendricks County Amateur Radio Society
Indiana Bicentennial Celebration
In honor of Adrian Parsons
From May 28th to June 11th the Hendricks County Amateur Radio Society operated as special event station K9W.
The station was in honor of Adrian A. Parsons Indiana’s soy bean pioneer.
Who is Adrian Parsons?
Adrian A. Parsons Indiana’s Soybean Pioneer
The soybean industry in Indiana started on a farm located just a few miles southwest of Avon in Washington Township, Hendricks County. It was there that Adrian A. Parsons (1846 – 1929) started growing soybeans in the latter part of the Nineteenth Century. He was the first farmer of record to engage in the purposeful and sustained experimentation with and production of the crop in the state. Born in Guilford County, North Carolina, young Adrian immigrated with his family to the Avon area in 1852, and he resided in Washington Township most of the rest of his life. While still a teenager, he enlisted in the 9th Indiana Cavalry of Union volunteers during the Civil War, and was severely wounded in action south of Franklin, Tennessee, in December 1864. After the War he settled into farming, and also taught school, served a term as Hendricks County Recorder, and several terms as Washington Township Trustee. With diminished robustness from the effects of his war wound, Adrian compensated by closer study of and experimentation with unconventional agricultural crops and methods. Around 1891 he obtained a batch of soybeans imported from Japan, and started growing the exotic legume while grappling with issues of variety adaptability, culture, and utilization. Recognizing early on that soybeans were useful for building soil fertility and as forage for livestock, he urged other farmers, through personal contacts and the farm press, to try the crop. His advocacy of the soybean was at first met with resistance and even derision, but his persistent demonstration of the crop’s utility on the average farm helped advance its acceptance in Hoosier agriculture. The development of industrial soybean processing capability in the 1920s compounded the crop’s value as a grain commodity, and set the stage for its major economic importance today. Adrian Parsons lived to see his own community become a leader in soybean production, and he was recognized by the American Soybean Association and the farm press as Indiana’s soybean pioneer.
Summary of Contacts Made:
Bands:
17,20,30,40,80 and 160 Meter
Countries:
Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cuba, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Venezuela and of course the Unites State.
Total QSO’s: 244
Total Participants: 22
