Amateur Radio

POTA activation guide

How to activate a park for Parks on the Air. Equipment, setup, logging, and submitting your activation.

POTA activation guide

Everything you need to activate a park for Parks on the Air.

What is POTA

Parks on the Air (POTA) is a program where amateur operators set up portable stations in parks, forests, and public lands. Activators operate from the park; hunters contact them from home. A valid activation requires at least 10 contacts from a qualifying park entity.

Equipment for POTA

The minimal POTA station

  • Radio: Any HF transceiver (Elecraft KX2, Xiegu G90, Icom IC-705, Yaesu FT-891, or even a QRP Labs QDX for digital)
  • Antenna: EFHW wire antenna (the POTA standard), or a linked dipole, or a vertical with counterpoise
  • Power: LiFePO4 battery (Bioenno 6-12Ah) or radio's internal battery
  • Support: Throw line for getting wire into trees, a mast or fishing pole if no trees
  • Logging: Smartphone with HAMRS app, or paper log

The typical POTA setup

Most activators use an EFHW wire antenna thrown over a tree branch, connected to a QRP or 100W transceiver, powered by a LiFePO4 battery, sitting at a picnic table. Setup takes 10-15 minutes. The whole station fits in a backpack.

The activation process

  1. Find a POTA park. Search pota.app for parks near you. Every national park, national forest, state park, and many local parks qualify.
  2. Check in. Spot yourself on pota.app when you start operating so hunters know you are active.
  3. Operate. Call "CQ POTA" on SSB, or CQ on CW, or run FT8 on the standard digital frequencies. Hunters will find you through the POTA spots page.
  4. Log contacts. Record callsign, band, mode, date, and time (UTC) for each contact. The HAMRS app on a smartphone handles this easily.
  5. Get 10 contacts. A valid activation requires a minimum of 10 QSOs. On a good day on 20m or 40m, 10 contacts takes 15-30 minutes.
  6. Submit your log. Upload your ADIF log file to pota.app after the activation. HAMRS exports ADIF directly.

Tips

  • 20m and 40m are the productive bands. Most POTA contacts happen on 20m SSB (14.260-14.290 MHz), 40m SSB (7.260-7.290 MHz), and FT8 (14.074, 7.074 MHz).
  • CW is efficient. If you know CW, it cuts through noise better than SSB at QRP power levels. Many POTA activators run CW at 5W with excellent results.
  • Spot yourself. Self-spotting on pota.app is how hunters find you. Without a spot, you are calling into the void.
  • Bring more battery than you think. Running out of battery with 8 contacts is frustrating.
  • The first 10 are the hardest. After you spot yourself and the first hunters find you, the pile-up builds. Be patient for the first few minutes.