POTA Special Interest Group
Group Coordinator - Wes Va5MuD & Rob VE5VK
Parks on the Air ® (POTA) is a site for international portable amateur radio operations that promote emergency awareness and communications from national/federal and state/provincial level parks. In a nutshell, there are two sides.
- Activators who call CQ POTA and are required to upload QSO logs to POTA. They must be operating from within a designated park as listed on the map of entities. Except for satellites, repeaters are not to be used.
- Hunters who answer the Activators call. Hunters need not sign up for POTA but if you do, you can earn electronic awards. Just by answering the calls, you help the Activators. If you sign up with POTA, the POTA Website/App will tell you what frequencies and modes the Activators are on and what park they are in. As a Hunter, you can operate from anywhere including your home hamshack and you do not upload your log of POTA QSOs.
Jump on over to The POTA website https://parksontheair.com/ where you can learn all about it and set up your POTA profile. Feel free to join/follow the POTA Special Interest Group here to learn from others this interesting aspect of Amateur Radio.
Note: When signing up for the POTA app, it is best to use a desktop or laptop computer as many are having issues signing up with mobile devices. If having issues, contact POTA for assistance.
The POTA Activator
The idea is to set up in a designated park using whatever portable equipment you have.
A successful Park Activation is at least 10 confirmed QSOs before midnight UTC.
Activators must submit their log data to the POTA website. Logs must be uploaded even if you did not get 10 QSOs to ensure hunters that contacted you are properly credited.
The Portable Antenna
Whatever works for an antenna. Even a lawn chair might work, but the better the antenna the stronger your signal. Remember though, some parks are very remote so you will need to keep it light.
The Curious Public
You might find you attract a little attention. Attention is a good thing. There could be a potential future HAM in that crowd.
Pota on the News
POTA can be a great opportunity to spark curiosity from the public
VA5MUD Demonstration
A demonstration of being a hunter, answering the CQ POTA call from an Activator.
The Pota App
The POTA app will tell you where the activators are. You as a hunter need only answer the CQ POTA from the activator. The activator sends in the QSO log and you will be credited towards award levels.
The POTA Equipment Selection
Take whatever works to get up on the air. Consider efficiency too as you will be running on battery power.
Gadgets
A great opportunity to experiment with gadgets and home brew. Have fun!