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!
- BE A POTA ACTIVATOR
Getting Started: Step-by-Step Instructions By Jim Wasson (KO4MNB), Tom Valencia (W4ID), and John Satterfield (KK4JS) Parks on the Air® (POTA) started in early 2017 when… - Marine Mobile POTA Assault on Old Island (K-3906)
Marine Mobile POTA Assault on Old Island (K-3906) In May of 2020, Old Island Heritage Preserve WildlifeManagement Area, near Beaufort, SC was first activatedby our… - pota testtesting a new blog post
- Breaking News with POTAThe POTA self uploader is now live. Matt did a great video for us. https://youtu.be/bW9RXVJDvsY
- OUR FIRST MOBILE MARINE POTA ACTIVATION
It was a clear and sunny day on Saturday, June 18, perfect for an activation at K-0518 Cape Romain from my Bayliner 185 with first mate Rich Lorenzo, K4ZRL. We also brought fishing…