11am HEC meeting at the EOC Dungeon

A personal journey into Parks on the Air

So, you’ve done it.

You found a POTA activation on POTA.app. You figured out what that little spot notification means, found the frequency, looked up the park, and maybe even realized the activator is somewhere relatively close.

Now comes the part where you actually have to talk to them.

Don’t worry. This is amateur radio. There are procedures for everything, most of which can be made considerably more complicated than necessary.

The good news is that working a POTA activation isn’t difficult.

The trick is learning how to listen before you transmit.

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The Most Important Piece of Equipment

Before we talk about radios, antennas, batteries, coax, portable masts, tuners, power supplies, or any of the other equipment we’re going to convince ourselves we absolutely need to take into the park, let’s talk about the most important piece of equipment you’ll bring with you.

Your ears.

Or, more accurately, your ability to listen.

I know. That’s not nearly as exciting as talking about a new radio.

But if you’re going to hunt POTA activations, learning to listen is probably going to make a bigger difference than buying another hundred dollars’ worth of equipment.

When you find an activation, the temptation is to immediately grab the microphone and throw your callsign into the pile.

Don’t.

Listen first.

Find the activator’s frequency and spend a few seconds figuring out what’s happening.

Are they calling CQ?

Are they already working another station?

Is there a pileup?

Are they asking for a particular state, country, callsign prefix, or something else?

And, most importantly, what is the activator actually asking for?

The frequency isn’t going anywhere.

Well, hopefully it isn’t.

If the activator is already talking to someone, wait.

If twenty stations are calling at once, don’t become number twenty-one just because you can.

Listen for the rhythm.

Eventually, you’ll hear the activator finish a contact, pause, and start listening again.

That’s your opening.

Give your callsign clearly, once.

Then listen.

You may get picked immediately.

You may not.

And that’s okay.

Because the goal isn’t to be the loudest station in the pileup.

The goal is to be the station the activator can actually hear.

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Welcome to the Pileup

Eventually, you’re going to hear something that sounds less like a radio conversation and more like somebody kicked an angry beehive.

Congratulations.

You’ve found a POTA pileup.

An activator announces that they’re operating from a park, and suddenly operators from all over the place are trying to work them.

Sometimes it’s five or ten stations.

Sometimes it’s thirty or forty.

And sometimes it sounds like every licensed amateur radio operator on the planet just happened to be sitting in front of their radio at the same time.

The activator might say:

“CQ POTA, CQ Parks on the Air, this is KF5WZD.”

And then you’ll hear:

“K5ABC!”

“W4XYZ!”

“N0WHO!”

“KF7SOMETHING!”

“ME! ME! PICK ME!”

Okay, nobody actually says “me, me, pick me.”

Usually.

When you’re new to POTA, a pileup can sound completely chaotic. It can be difficult to tell who’s talking, what the activator is saying, or whether you should even try to get in there.

But there is a rhythm to it.

The activator calls CQ.

Several stations respond.

The activator picks out a callsign.

That station gives their report.

The activator confirms the contact.

Then the activator listens for the next station.

And the whole thing starts over.

Once you recognize that rhythm, the pileup becomes much easier to understand.

More importantly, you start to realize that you don’t have to fight your way through the entire crowd to make a contact.

You just have to find the right moment to speak.

And sometimes, the best thing you can do in a pileup is absolutely nothing.

Just listen.

Because the activator may be doing something you haven’t figured out yet—working a particular part of the country, listening for a specific callsign prefix, or simply trying to pull one clean callsign out of the noise.

Pay attention to what they’re asking for.

Then, when the opportunity presents itself, that’s when you make your move.

Not before.

Not louder.

Not five times in a row.

Just at the right time.

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Don’t Call Over Someone Else

Here’s another big one.

If the activator is already talking to somebody, don’t transmit over them.

It sounds obvious, but when you’re sitting there watching the spot and you’ve been waiting five minutes to work the park, your brain starts whispering things like:

“Maybe if I just yell really loud…”

Don’t.

The activator can’t work you if they can’t hear you.

And if you transmit over the station they’re currently working, all you’ve accomplished is making it harder for everyone—including yourself—to hear the contact.

Wait for the conversation to finish.

Then listen for the opening.

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You Don’t Have to Shout

When you’re in a pileup, there is no advantage to being the loudest person on the frequency.

In fact, shouting your callsign repeatedly can make you less likely to get picked.

Try something simple.

Listen.

Find the rhythm.

Wait for the activator to finish.

Then give your callsign once, clearly.

For example:

“KF5WZD.”

That’s it.

No need for:

“KF5WZD, KF5WZD, Kilo Foxtrot Five Whiskey Zulu Delta, Kilo Foxtrot Five—”

You get the idea.

The activator heard you.

Or they didn’t.

If they didn’t, there will be another opportunity.

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The Activator Is Listening for You

One thing that’s easy to forget when you’re on the hunting side of a POTA contact is that the activator has a completely different job.

You’re trying to get one contact.

They’re potentially trying to make dozens or even hundreds.

That means the activator is listening for callsigns while simultaneously keeping track of who they’ve already worked, giving reports, watching their equipment, dealing with the weather, and probably trying not to sit on an ant hill.

Give them a little help.

When they come back with something like:

“Whiskey Five…?”

Don’t immediately assume they’re talking to you.

Listen to see if they finish the callsign.

If they say:

“Whiskey Five Alpha Bravo?”

and you’re W5ABC, congratulations. You might have just won the POTA lottery.

Come back with your callsign clearly.

If they say something completely different, let it go.

There’s always another contact.

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What About the Report?

For most POTA contacts, the exchange is wonderfully simple.

You give the activator your callsign and a signal report.

The activator gives you their callsign and a signal report.

That’s usually it.

For example:

Activator:
“KF5WZD, you’re 59.”

You:
“You’re 59 as well. Thanks for the park!”

And you’re done.

You don’t need to tell the activator about your antenna project.

You don’t need to explain that your radio is sitting on the kitchen table.

You don’t need to give them your complete life story.

And you definitely don’t need to explain how you once worked a station from Antarctica in 1987.

There may be a time for that conversation.

A POTA pileup generally isn’t it.

Keep the exchange short and let the activator keep moving.

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And Yes, You Can Spot Them

Once you’ve successfully worked the activator, you may be tempted to immediately post another spot.

That’s where a little judgment comes in.

If the activator’s frequency is already properly spotted and they’re actively working stations, they probably don’t need you to do anything.

But if the activator has moved to a new frequency and isn’t showing up on the spotting system, a new spot can be extremely helpful.

Remember what we talked about in Article 2:

Spots are information.

A good spot helps other operators find the activation.

A bad or unnecessary spot can create confusion.

Before posting one, make sure you actually know where the activator is operating.

And please don’t spot an activator on a frequency where you think they might be.

You’d be surprised how quickly several dozen hams can arrive at the wrong frequency.

It’s basically a ham-radio version of following the wrong GPS directions.

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What If You Miss Them?

This is going to happen.

You will hear the activator.

You will call them.

They won’t hear you.

You’ll call again.

Still nothing.

Someone else gets the contact.

You’ll try again.

Someone else gets it.

Eventually you’ll start wondering if the activator has personally decided that your callsign is offensive.

They haven’t.

There are a lot of variables involved.

Your signal might be weak at their location. Their signal might be weak at yours. Propagation may be changing. There may be interference. There may be twenty other stations calling at the same time.

Take a breath.

Listen.

Try again when there’s an opening.

And if you never make the contact?

That’s radio.

Move on to the next one.

There will be another activation.

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You’re Going to Make Mistakes

You’re going to jump in too early.

You’re going to mishear a callsign.

You’re going to transmit over somebody.

You’re going to miss the activator completely.

You’re probably going to forget the exchange halfway through your first pileup.

And eventually, you’re going to realize you’ve been calling a station that isn’t even there anymore.

Congratulations.

You’re doing POTA.

The important thing is to learn from it and keep going.

Nobody started out knowing how to work a pileup.

The operators who make it look easy have simply spent more time listening to them.

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Keep It Simple

If there’s one theme running through this entire series, it’s going to be this:

Keep it simple.

You don’t need to know everything before you make your first POTA contact.

You don’t need to understand every feature of POTA.app.

You don’t need to know every operating procedure in amateur radio.

And you certainly don’t need to own every piece of equipment advertised in the latest ham-radio catalog.

Start by finding an activation.

Listen.

Learn the rhythm.

Wait for your opportunity.

Give your callsign clearly.

Make the contact.

Then do it again.

Before long, you’ll find yourself sitting in front of the radio listening to a pileup and thinking:

“I know exactly what’s happening here.”

And that’s when things start getting really fun.

Because eventually, you’re going to stop hunting parks…

…and you’re going to decide it’s time to activate one yourself.

That’s where we’re headed next.

In Article 4, we’ll leave the comfortable confines of the shack and start talking about what it actually takes to get a radio into a park—radios, antennas, batteries, coax, portable masts, tuners, and all the other stuff you will swear you’re going to keep to a minimum.

You won’t.

But we’ll talk about it anyway.

Get Outside, Get On the Air, Get in the Park, but most importantly, HAVE FUN and Keep it Simple!!

73
KF5WZD – Chris

A Personal Journey Into Parks on the Air

Last night, I got to experience Parks on the Air from the other side of the pileup.

I was sitting at Columbus Lake, operating US-7129, with a radio, antenna, battery, and enough equipment scattered around me to make anyone walking by wonder exactly what I was building.

I wasn’t looking for a POTA activator.

I was the POTA activator.

By the time I packed everything up, I had made more than a hundred contacts with operators all over the country and beyond.

And while I was sitting there working stations, I started thinking about what it must look like from the other side.

You find a POTA spot.

You tune to the frequency.

You hear a bunch of people calling.

Now what?

That’s what this article is about.

Last Night, I Was the Guy You Were Looking For

This is where my Columbus Lake activation gave me a completely different perspective.

Once I started calling CQ, the spots started doing their job.

Operators began finding me.

Some stations were incredibly strong.

Some were weak.

Some came through clearly.

Others were buried underneath the noise.

And sometimes several stations were calling at once.

From my side of the radio, I could tell pretty quickly which operators had a good handle on the situation.

The ones who waited for an opening, gave their callsign clearly, and followed the flow of the activation generally made things much easier.

And that doesn’t mean you need to sit there for five minutes studying the frequency before making a call.

Sometimes you hear the activator, hear an opening, give your callsign, and boom—you’re in the log.

That’s the goal.

Being on the activator side also made something else very clear:

The people trying to contact you don’t know what is happening at your end of the radio.

They don’t know if you’re hearing them.

They don’t know if you just worked somebody else.

They don’t know if you changed frequencies.

They only know what they can hear.

So understanding how a POTA activation works from the activator’s side can make you a much better hunter.

And that’s where we start.

Finding a POTA Activation

The easiest place to start is POTA.app.

POTA.app is where you’ll find current POTA spots and information about activations.

A typical spot will give you the activator’s callsign, park reference and name, frequency, operating mode, and when the station was spotted.

Think of it as someone saying:

“Hey, I hear this POTA station over here!”

For example:

KF5WZD — US-7129 — 14.285 MHz — SSB

That tells you someone has heard KF5WZD operating from Columbus Lake on or around 14.285 MHz using single sideband.

Pretty simple.

Just remember that a spot is a snapshot in time, not a live tracking device.

The activator may have moved frequencies, changed bands, taken a break, or even finished the activation.

So if the spot says 14.285 MHz, don’t assume the activator is still sitting there waiting for you.

Use the spot to get you in the neighborhood.

Then see what’s happening on the frequency.

The Spot Says 14.285 MHz. Now What?

Tune to the frequency and see what’s happening.

Maybe you’ll hear the activator calling CQ.

Maybe you’ll hear a pileup.

Maybe you’ll hear the activator working stations one at a time.

Maybe you’ll hear absolutely nothing.

That last one happens too.

The spot might be a few minutes old, or the operator may have already moved.

If you hear the activator, take a moment to figure out how they’re handling contacts.

If they’re working stations one at a time, you’ll know what to expect when it’s your turn.

If they’re asking for specific areas or states, pay attention to that, too.

You’re not trying to memorize a complicated procedure.

You’re simply figuring out how this particular operator is running the activation.

What If Everyone Is Calling at Once?

Welcome to the POTA pileup.

One minute the activator is calling CQ and the next minute it sounds like somebody dropped a box of radios down the stairs.

Everyone wants the contact.

And honestly, that’s part of the fun.

The trick is not to become the Loudest Human Being on the Frequency™.

If several stations are calling at once, don’t try to transmit over everyone else.

Look for an opening.

Sometimes the activator will pick out a callsign.

Sometimes they’ll ask for a state, region, or prefix.

Sometimes the pileup will suddenly quiet down for half a second.

That’s your opportunity.

And if they don’t hear you the first time?

No big deal.

Try again when there’s another opening.

POTA isn’t a competition to see who can yell the loudest into a microphone.

Although, judging by some pileups, there are definitely people willing to compete.

What Do I Say When They Call Me?

This is one of the questions that comes up pretty quickly when you’re new to POTA.

You finally get through the pileup.

The activator comes back with your callsign.

And suddenly your brain decides that every word you’ve ever learned has left the building.

Relax.

It’s usually pretty simple.

Something like:

“KF5WZD, you’re five-nine.”

The activator may come back with their own callsign or simply acknowledge you.

You might respond:

“Five-nine, thanks!”

And you’re done.

You don’t need to give the activator your complete station description.

You don’t need to explain your antenna.

You probably don’t need to tell them that you’ve owned your radio for three years but only figured out how to turn it on last Tuesday.

Keep it simple.

Make the contact and let the activator move on to the next station.

We’ll go into this much deeper in the next article, including signal reports, callsigns, mistakes, and what happens when the activator doesn’t quite copy you correctly.

There’s More Than One Way to Find an Activation

Active spots aren’t the only way to find POTA activity.

POTA also allows operators to schedule activations.

A scheduled activation is essentially an operator saying:

“I’m planning to be at this park around this time.”

And that word planning is important.

Weather happens.

Batteries happen.

Antennas happen.

Cars develop opinions.

And sometimes life simply gets in the way.

That means a scheduled activation isn’t a guarantee that someone will actually be on the air.

But it does give hunters another way to find parks and operators that might otherwise never cross their radar.

If there’s a particular park you’ve been wanting to work, scheduled activations can be a great place to start.

Once You Make the Contact, You’re Done… Right?

Technically?

Yes.

You made the contact.

Log it.

Smile.

Find another park.

But there’s another useful thing you can do.

If you’re hearing an activator clearly and you’re confident the frequency and mode are correct, you can spot—or re-spot—the station.

That helps other hunters find the activator.

You’re essentially telling everyone else:

“Hey, this station is still here.”

Just make sure the information you’re posting is accurate.

Otherwise, you may send a bunch of hunters marching toward an empty frequency.

And now you’ve just created a convoy heading toward an empty parking lot.

Don’t Become Completely Dependent on the Spotting Website

POTA.app is an excellent tool, especially when you’re getting started.

But POTA stations can also turn up when you’re not looking for them.

You might be tuning across a band and hear:

“CQ POTA…”

You might hear someone mention a park on a local repeater.

Or you might stumble across a strong signal and suddenly realize:

“Wait a minute… Is that a POTA station?”

That’s part of the fun.

The spotting system makes finding activations much easier.

It doesn’t mean you have to stare at a website waiting for the next little green dot to appear.

Sometimes the best contacts are the ones you weren’t expecting.

Your First POTA Hunt

If you’re sitting at your radio wondering where to start, here’s the basic process:

1. Find an active POTA spot.

Open POTA.app and find a station that interests you.

2. Tune to the reported frequency.

Get close to where the activator is supposed to be.

3. Figure out what’s happening.

Is the station calling CQ?

Is there a pileup?

Is the operator working one station at a time?

4. Join in.

When there’s an opening, give your callsign clearly.

5. Make the contact.

Exchange whatever information the activator needs.

6. Log it.

Record the contact so you can keep track of your POTA hunting adventures.

7. Move on to the next one.

There are plenty of parks out there.

And once you get the hang of it, you’ll probably find yourself saying:

“I wonder what else I can hear?”

That’s when POTA starts getting addictive.

In a good way, of course.

In the Next Article

So now you’ve found the activation.

You’ve found the frequency.

You’ve figured out what’s happening.

And eventually, the activator says:

“KF5WZD, go ahead.”

What do you say?

What signal report should you give?

What happens if they don’t hear your callsign correctly?

What if there’s a pileup?

And what do you do when your brain suddenly forgets every word you’ve ever learned?

We’ll tackle all of that in the next article, “Making Your First POTA Contact.”

Because finding the POTA station is only the beginning.

Get Outside. Get On the Air. Get in the Park.

But most importantly…

HAVE FUN and Keep it Simple!!

73 KF5WZD – Chris

Good afternoon! Im headed to Columbus Lake to do a POTA Activation if anyone is interested in joining in person or on the air! I’ll be there approximately at 16:45 local time until the sun sets, the rains push me out, or the mosquitos! Hope to hear you on the air waves!

73 – KF5WZD