POTA Question

[WRPL700]

So this weekend was the first time I had really interacted with folks doing POTA.  Generally speaking, they were coming in here to Delaware at 5-7 on the S-meter, with periods of QSB. Which is understandable as they were probably operating at around 10-20 watts, I would guess.  I had about 20 QSOs with them.  BTW, my rig is 20 watts.

My question pertains to "Activating".  What does that even mean?  What are they "activating"?

Thanks in advance.

[SteveShannon]

  On 4/7/2025 at 1:59 PM, WRPL700 said:

So this weekend was the first time I had really interacted with folks doing POTA.  Generally speaking, they were coming in here to Delaware at 5-7 on the S-meter, with periods of QSB. Which is understandable as they were probably operating at around 10-20 watts, I would guess.  I had about 20 QSOs with them.  BTW, my rig is 20 watts.

My question pertains to "Activating".  What does that even mean?  What are they "activating"?

Thanks in advance.

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They are activating a park.  If they receive a certain number of contacts (10) while operating from that park they have activated it.  It’s all spelled out on POTA.app.
https://docs.pota.app

 

1. A successful activation requires a minimum of 10 QSOs from a park in the designated list within a single UTC day (Zulu day). 
   • Courteous activators will still submit logs for unsuccessful activations to ensure their hunters get credit for the QSOs.
   • Multiple activities at the same park in the same state/province/entity and the same UTC day count as a single activation, provided that the ten or more QSOs combined were made.

 

 

[Socalgmrs]

My limited understanding is when “activating” a park it’s just letting people know that you are in so and so park and you have so many contacts 10? I think then your station is active.  It may go like this.  
 

“this is www123 has 10? Contacts activating Yellowstone national park.”    
 

but it’s been a while so I may be wrong.   

[WRYZ926]

Here is the main website for Parks On The Air: https://parksontheair.com

POTA can be fun and it's good practice for just in case situations where you might have to go mobile/portable in real life emergencies.

Some guys will use 100 watt HF radios for POTA while others will use 20 watt radios and some will only use QRP radios (10 watts or less). I use a Xiegu G90 20 watt radio and do have the Xiegu 100 watt amp that I can use if I want or need to. My brother likes hauling his Icom IC-7300 with him. Other guys in our club use QRP radios only. And I have also seen guys use 400 + watt amps for POTA. But the bigger the amp the bigger the batteries you need to run everything.

Portable quarter wave antennas with telescoping whips and wire end fed half wave antennas are probably the most popular antennas for POTA. You will see some use a telescoping mast for their EFHW antennas while others just throw one end up into a tree. Different parks have different rules on that.

Then there is also SOTA - Summits On The Air and IOTA - Islands On The Air. The SOTA guys pretty much all use QRP radios.

[SteveShannon]

  On 4/7/2025 at 2:32 PM, WRYZ926 said:

Here is the main website for Parks On The Air: https://parksontheair.com

POTA can be fun and it's good practice for just in case situations where you might have to go mobile/portable in real life emergencies.

Some guys will use 100 watt HF radios for POTA while others will use 20 watt radios and some will only use QRP radios (10 watts or less). I use a Xiegu G90 20 watt radio and do have the Xiegu 100 watt amp that I can use if I want or need to. My brother likes hauling his Icom IC-7300 with him. Other guys in our club use QRP radios only. And I have also seen guys use 400 + watt amps for POTA. But the bigger the amp the bigger the batteries are that you need to run everything.

Portable quart wave antennas with telescoping whips and wire end fed half wave antennas are probably the most popular antennas for POTA. You will see some use a telescoping mast for their EFHW antennas while others just throw one end up into a tree. Different parks have different rules on that.

Then there is also SOTA - Summits On The Air and IOTA - Islands On The Air. The SOTA guys pretty much all use QRP radios.

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And Walmarts on the air!  

[WRYZ926]

  On 4/7/2025 at 3:05 PM, SteveShannon said:

And Walmarts on the air!  

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About the only time I use MURS is when I want to be ornery and mess with the Walmart workers by sending them on wild goose chases for spills in different isles. 

[amaff]

  On 4/7/2025 at 3:14 PM, WRYZ926 said:

About the only time I use MURS is when I want to be ornery and mess with the Walmart workers by sending them on wild goose chases for spills in different isles. 

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I'm really hoping that's a joke.

[SteveShannon]

  On 4/7/2025 at 3:14 PM, WRYZ926 said:

About the only time I use MURS is when I want to be ornery and mess with the Walmart workers by sending them on wild goose chases for spills in different isles. 

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No, there’s actually an event called “Walmart Parking Lots On The Air” where people operate from Walmart parking lots as a way of introducing people to ham radio. 
https://wmplota.org/

[WRYZ926]

  On 4/7/2025 at 3:37 PM, amaff said:

I'm really hoping that's a joke.

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Yes is it only a joke, most of the time. I will mess with friends on occasion that work at Walmart. 

[WRYZ926]

  On 4/7/2025 at 3:43 PM, SteveShannon said:

No, there’s actually an event called “Walmart Parking Lots On The Air” where people operate from Walmart parking lots as a way of introducing people to ham radio. 
https://wmplota.org/

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Yes I am aware of that. I've seen clubs setup in Walmart parking lots during summer field day for the public exposure too.

[Jaay]

  On 4/7/2025 at 1:59 PM, WRPL700 said:

So this weekend was the first time I had really interacted with folks doing POTA.  Generally speaking, they were coming in here to Delaware at 5-7 on the S-meter, with periods of QSB. Which is understandable as they were probably operating at around 10-20 watts, I would guess.  I had about 20 QSOs with them.  BTW, my rig is 20 watts.

My question pertains to "Activating".  What does that even mean?  What are they "activating"?

Thanks in advance.

Expand  

Activating a known state or Federal Park in the US, that's already recognized as a POTA site. 

[WRPL700]

  On 4/7/2025 at 2:32 PM, WRYZ926 said:

I use a Xiegu G90 20 watt radio and do have the Xiegu 100 watt amp that I can use if I want or need to.

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I have a Xiegu G90 as well.  I have been totally surprised by the performance of this little radio, although my antenna may have something to do with it too (Two Shark 20M hamsticks in a Procomm DP4MFPL dipole mount at 30').

[WRYZ926]

  On 4/8/2025 at 11:14 AM, WRPL700 said:

I have a Xiegu G90 as well.  I have been totally surprised by the performance of this little radio, although my antenna may have something to do with it too (Two Shark 20M hamsticks in a Procomm DP4MFPL dipole mount at 30').

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Resonant antennas are always going to be more efficient and work better. The G90 can easily tune all kinds of metal objects such as shopping carts, metal bleachers, chainlink fence, etc. But I would rather not have to even use the tuner if I don't have to.

Using resonant and efficient antennas are more important when running QRP at 5 to 10 watts and is a big help even when running 20 watts. I have worked stations with my G90 and a resonant antenna where others using 100 watts and an external tuner could not.

[WRUU653]

  On 4/7/2025 at 3:43 PM, SteveShannon said:

No, there’s actually an event called “Walmart Parking Lots On The Air” where people operate from Walmart parking lots as a way of introducing people to ham radio. 
https://wmplota.org/

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What about Target? “Transmitting In Target Stores”

[tweiss3]

I'm a fan of distance contacts on 80m while doing 70 down the highway. I don't really ever have time to sit longer than 15 minutes.

[GrouserPad]

I prefer to activate car alarms with a 1000 watt transistorized spurious RF master blaster on 11 meters.  
 

I kid I kid it’s just a joke chill

[WRYZ926]

  On 4/10/2025 at 12:46 AM, GrouserPad said:

I prefer to activate car alarms with a 1000 watt transistorized spurious RF master blaster on 11 meters.  
 

I kid I kid it’s just a joke chill

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A friend would scramble everyone's TVs on the block when he would fire up his CB and amp in his truck when we were in high school. The neighbors loved him for that 

I live in a small rural town of 1100 people ( I think they counted chickens and cows to get to 1100) with several of us having our amateur licenses. We try not to use any amps when working HF so we don't overload everyone else's radios. One is 500 yards away from me and two are 300 yards away. I had to get on one of them when he decided to run a 165 watt VHF amp during a net. He was overloading my Icom dual band radio all across the 2m band.