Parks On The Air, or POTA, is an international award scheme for Amateur Radio operators. It was started in 2017 in the USA and has since expanded to include over 130 DX entities!
The idea is simple. There are activators and chasers, just like other award schemes like SOTA for example. For POTA, only the activators upload logs. The chasers are awarded points based on the activator logs.
A Park is a specified location, not just any local park. You can find all the information about them on the website, which is a mine of information.
One of the great things about POTA is that you just have to be in the area of the Park. For example, Morecambe Bay is an area of outstanding natural beauty and is included as a Park. This makes activating POTA very accessible. Although there are Parks that involve a climb, a lot do not and you can even operate from the car.
Activators need to make 10 contacts from the Park in order to qualify for the activation. These can be any mode or mixture of modes. It is also possible to work P2P or 'Park to Park', which is keenly sought after.
All the needed information is at the main POTA website and the activation site is pota.app where spots are posted. Activators are encouraged to spot themselves here and many schedule their activations.
I have had a lot of fun with POTA although I have only managed a couple of Parks so far. It's a great excuse to go out portable with the knowledge that folks will be looking for you :)
As for logging, I use an app on my phone called HAMRS (pronounced 'hammers'). This has a specific template for POTA and does RBN and QRZ lookups if you have Internet available. HAMRS makes it simple and quick to log and easy to extract the ADIF needed to upload to POTA once the activation(s) are complete. It actually has a nice general logging template for portable use too!
Have a go, there are hundreds of locations to operate and you can find them from maps on the POTA site.
POTA is a well thought out award scheme and a friendly place to be :)
73 Ian
Great information Ian. Like you say, POTA is a great excuse to get outdoors and play radio without the hassle and effort of its hill-climbing sister SOTA. We'll have to make arrangements to meet up at Morecambe Bay for a few hours one weekend.
ReplyDelete73, Tom, MR7MCQ
www.m7mcq.com
That sounds like a plan :). We could activate WWF as well as POTA. CW and SSB ;)
ReplyDelete73 Ian