From Wikipedia, POTA, Parks On The Air, is an international radiosport award program that encourages licensed amateur radio operators to visit, enjoy and operate portable equipment in a variety of parks and public lands.

From parksontheair.com, it facilitates international portable amateur radio operations that promote emergency awareness and communications from national/federal and state/provincial level parks.

From me, POTA is a worldwide activity involving portable operators “activating” in designated locations to make and log contacts with “hunters”. While it’s not a radio contest, it is contest-like regarding logging, awards, and QSO format.

Folks define POTA differently; ask 10 participants and you’ll likely hear 10 different answers.  That’s the universal appeal – it satisfies the needs of a guy who wants to operate off-grid with nothing but a radio, a battery, and a wire.  It also floats the boat of a shack operator with a legal limit amp and Beamosaurus Rex antenna racking up DX contacts.

Finally, POTA has an awards system that feeds our latent, and sometimes not so latent, hunger to measure and accomplish.  Every metric is categorized, counted, and recorded allowing us to track contacts, parks, states, bands, modes, etc.

How’d this all start?

The ARRL does annual events like Field Day and Volunteers On The Air.  Local clubs do events, too.  Mine does special events to commemorate Eisenhower’s birthday, WW2 Perrin Field, and the Texas/Oklahoma Red River War.  In 2017, the ARRL launched an annual event for Parks On The Air and the participation exceeded expectations, some say wildly exceeded.  The enthusiasm was enough to inspire some individual amateurs to come together and organize POTA, separate from the ARRL, continuing the root concept of what started as a formal, annual event.

How’s it work?

Like with all organized radio activities, one operator calls CQ and another answers.  With POTA, the operator in the park calls CQ and is called an Activator.  The operators who answer the QC are called Hunters.  The Activator logs the contact and when he uploads the log to pota.app, both the Activator and Hunter get credit for the QSO.  It’s as nuanced as you want to make it, but at the base layer – Activators call CQ from a park and Hunters answer them.  Yes, of course there’s rules and protocols; otherwise, we’re just monkeys in trees throwing poop at each other.  You know how people get.

There’s a website at pota.app where activators “spot” themselves in the park.  It lets hunters know they’re in a park and calling on a specific frequency. 

KA5TXN in POTA.

I got my General ticket in November 2021.  I knew little more than the answers to questions on the licensing exam.  I didn’t really know how to make a radio “work” or what I could do with it.  An Elmer at my club, N5SLY Lee Sly, talked me through HF operations. We talked about radios, modes, antennas, operating, logging, and HF activities.  He mentioned POTA as one of many things I could do with my radio and offered to show me.  I joined him on a park activation and with an Eagle One on the receiver hitch of his SUV, worked SSB from the passenger seat as his second operator.  This was my first activation, 4/16/22. I’ve averaged 2 activations every week since.

Nearly two years, 10,000 contacts, and 250 activations later, I’m still doing it.  Why?  It’s fun!  I like experimenting with modes and equipment.  My original and continued reason for licensing is for portable operating – off-grid, emergency communication – to be able to get and share information when all other means fail.  Radio communication isn’t plug-n-play like a phone.  You can’t just pick it up and dial a number or tap a link to a web page.  From battery to radio to antenna, to atmosphere, there’s a lot to consider and adapt to make portable radio communications work reliably.  Through POTA, hunters are standing by to tell me if and how it’s working.

Underneath all the technical, I just like being outside – I need to be outside.  While I’m not one to sit and gaze at the wonder of a tree or babbling brook, I do admire and appreciate His creation, it balances me. For me, I just feel a constant and compelling draw to be outside to “reset my clock”.

CU AGN ES 73,

KA5TXN Mark
DitWit