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Getting Hams Radio Active!

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Trident Amateur Radio Club
Trident Amateur Radio Club
Getting Hams Radio Active!

What is POTA?

POTA stands for Parks On The Air and refers to Amateur Radio operators deploying portable radio equipment and operations that promote emergency awareness and communications from national/federal and state/provincial level parks. There are two primary methods to get involved in POTA. One is activating a park and the other is hunting a park.

Activating a park involves identifying a national/federal or state/provincial level park and deploying portable radio equipment (a transceiver, power source and antenna) within the boundaries of the park and making at least 10 contacts (contacts should be logged).

Hunting a park involves contacting those stations that activate parks. You can do this from your home or other locations. You can also do this from another qualifying park. When this type of contact is made it is designated as a park-to-park contact. All contacts should be of a simplex nature, that is not using a land based repeater for the contact.

Getting Started: Step-by-Step Instructions. Click here for the latest guide on getting started with POTA activations, compiled by By Jim Wasson (KO4MNB), Tom Valencia (W4ID), and John Satterfield (KK4JS). The guide is downloadable once you open the link then save the document to your computer.

Watch a video that describes what POTA is.

First activations.

Resources.

Use the POTA website as a starting point. Sign up and create an account on the POTA website. You will track your activations, parks and logging here. There is a wealth of information to help get you started like additional videos on activating and hunting.

Follow this link for the official POTA website. https://parksontheair.com/

To contact the Trident Amateur Radio Club POTA team email us here -> pota@tridenthams.org

Below are the latest posts and news items related to POTA. Click here if you’d like to post your own story!

  • New Year POTA Event and Certificate
    by John Satterfield
    December 30, 2023
    If you are looking for something fun to do while bringing in the New Year, become radioactive and activate any of the listed POTA parks…
  • Parks On the Air – Botany Bay Plantation – Mobile Marine Park Activation – Testing Emergency Comms
    by Jim Wasson
    November 2, 2023
    This is a joint POTA radio park activation between Rich (K4ZRL) and Jim (KO4MNB). This is a mobile marine activation in which we travelled from…
  • Tag Along for SC POTA part II
    by Chris Benoit
    September 19, 2023
    As special thanks to Steve Behr, K4OPZ, for allowing me to tag along this past Saturday for SC POTA activations.  It was a blast!  I’ve…
  • Conquering the waves for another exciting MM POTA adventure
    by Jim Wasson
    September 19, 2023
    If you read our previous post from July 2022 “Mobile Marine POTA Assault on Old Island” https://www.tridenthams.org/marine-mobile-pota-assault-on-old-island-k-3906/ then you are aware that I enjoy boating and POTA, and…
  • Tag along for SC POTA
    by Chris Benoit
    August 28, 2023
    Is anyone going to do SC POTA locally on September 16 and 17?   If so, I would like to tag along and help.  Just started…

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  • Home
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  • Meeting Minutes
  • Resources
    • Lending Library
    • Technician Classes
    • General Classes
    • Programs
    • Get Licensed
    • Elmers and Mentors
    • What’s Next Class
    • Online Dues Payments
    • Helpful links
    • DX Clusters
    • RF Exposure Cheat Sheet
  • Photo Gallery
    • St John Catholic School Siren Build 3-17-25
    • 2024 ARRL Field Day
    • St. John Catholic School Radio Review 4-29-24
    • CHS Air Show 2024
    • St. John Catholic School Amplifier Build 2-29-24
    • Winter Field Day 2024
    • St. John Catholic School XTAL radio build 11-10
    • 2023 W4D SES Station
    • 2023 First Day Festival
    • 2023 ARRL Field Day
    • Cynthia Graham Hurd community day 2023
    • Trailer Work Day 5-20-2023
    • 50 Year Anniversary
    • Winter Field Day 2023
    • Citadel Cyber Event 2022
    • W4D SES October 2022
    • Givhans POTA – Antenna Build 4-23
    • SES HL Hunley 2-17-2022
    • Winter Field Day 2022
    • Winter Operating Day 2021
    • 2021 ARRL Field Day
    • 2021 Spring Operating Day
    • 03-19-2021 Colonial Dorchester POTA
    • Winter Field Day 2021
    • 2020 ARRL Field Day
  • Special Events
    • Museum Ships Weekend
    • HL Hunley SES
    • Little David SES
    • POTA
  • Calendar
    • Meetings and Events
    • TARC Net Control
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
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