A Personal Journey Into Parks on the Air

Whether you’re a newly licensed General looking for a way to get your feet wet on HF, or you’ve been an Extra for years but have never taken your radio into the field, Parks on the Air (POTA) may be one of the best ways to get started.

You may have just earned your General license and are staring at the HF bands wondering where to begin. Or maybe you’ve been a ham for years, have plenty of experience making contacts from home, but have never tried setting up a portable station in a park.

Either way, POTA gives you a reason to get outside, put your radio to work, and experience amateur radio from a completely different perspective.

You can reach stations hundreds or even thousands of miles away, experiment with antennas and portable equipment, and learn skills that you simply don’t develop sitting in front of a radio at home.

And the best part?

You don’t have to be an expert to get started.

A New Series About POTA

This article is the first in a series about Parks on the Air (POTA)—and my personal journey into it.

We’re going to start at the beginning, with the operator who may be completely new to POTA, regardless of how long they’ve held a license.

As the series progresses, we’ll move into operating techniques, HF etiquette, choosing and setting up equipment, antennas, batteries and power, setting up in a park, and eventually some of the more technical aspects of getting the most out of your portable station.

Along the way, I’ll share what I’ve learned, what has worked for me, what hasn’t, and probably a few things I’ll learn the hard way.

The goal isn’t to turn you into an expert overnight.

It’s to give you enough information to get outside, turn on the radio, make some contacts, and learn along the way.

Because sometimes the best way to learn amateur radio is to simply go do amateur radio.

So, What Exactly Is POTA?

POTA stands for Parks on the Air.

The basic idea is pretty simple: amateur radio operators take their equipment into designated parks and other public lands and operate from there.

The operator in the park is called the activator.

The people who contact that operator are called hunters.

That’s it.

Well… mostly.

The activator sets up a station, finds a suitable frequency, announces that they are operating from a POTA park, and starts making contacts. Hunters listen for that station and try to work them.

And this is where POTA gets really interesting.

You don’t necessarily need a huge tower, a 1,000-watt amplifier, or an antenna farm that would make your neighbors start asking questions.

A portable radio, battery, wire antenna, and a little patience can be enough.

In fact, one of the things that makes POTA so much fun is figuring out just how little equipment you actually need to make contacts.

Why Has POTA Become So Popular?

POTA has done something pretty important for amateur radio.

It gives people a reason to get on the air.

For a new HF operator, one of the hardest things to overcome is simply making that first contact.

You may sit there listening to a band and hear experienced operators casually talking across the country. You hear callsigns, signal reports, grid squares, QSB, pileups, and a dozen other terms that may sound like another language.

Then you think:

“How exactly am I supposed to jump into this?”

POTA helps solve that problem.

When an operator is activating a park, other operators are specifically looking for them.

You aren’t interrupting someone’s long conversation.

You aren’t necessarily trying to break into a group of experienced operators who have been talking for 45 minutes.

You are participating in an activity where the whole purpose is to make contacts.

That makes POTA a fantastic training ground for new HF operators.

But it can also be a great way for the experienced operator to try something new.

Maybe you’ve been sitting at the same desk with the same radio for ten years.

Take it outside.

Put up a different antenna.

Run it from a battery.

See what happens.

You may be surprised at what that little portable station can do.

The First Thing You Need to Learn: Listen

This is probably the most important piece of advice I can give any operator getting started with POTA:

Listen before you transmit.

Before calling CQ, before answering someone, and especially before jumping into a pileup, listen for a little while.

Figure out what is happening on the frequency.

Is someone already talking?

Is someone calling CQ?

Is it a POTA activation?

Is there a pileup?

Is the frequency actually being used?

And, most importantly:

Is the frequency clear?

A quick “Is this frequency in use?” followed by listening is a good habit when establishing your own operation.

Remember, just because your radio isn’t showing a huge signal doesn’t mean nobody is there.

HF propagation can be strange.

You may hear a station perfectly while they can’t hear you at all. Another station may be weak one second and completely disappear the next.

Welcome to HF.

It’s part science, part art, and occasionally part witchcraft.

Finding a POTA Station

As a hunter, one of the easiest ways to get started is to find an active POTA station.

You can tune around the bands and listen for operators calling something like:

“CQ POTA, CQ POTA…”

You’ll often hear the park reference as well.

Once you find them, listen.

Pay attention to how they are handling contacts.

You may hear something like:

“K5ABC, you’re five-nine.”

The other operator may respond with their callsign and perhaps a signal report.

The activator acknowledges them and moves on to the next station.

It can happen very quickly.

Don’t worry if you don’t catch everything the first few times.

You’re learning.

How Do I Answer a POTA CQ?

This is where many new operators get nervous.

Don’t overthink it.

If the activator calls CQ, wait for them to finish.

Then give your callsign clearly.

Something as simple as:

“KF5WZD.”

That’s it.

Don’t give your entire life story.

Don’t explain what radio you’re using.

Don’t tell them about the antenna you built last Tuesday.

Don’t give them your dog’s name.

At least not yet.

If they hear you, they will usually come back with your callsign and ask for your signal report.

You give them the report they request, confirm the contact, and you’re done.

For example:

“KF5WZD, you’re five-nine.”

You might respond:

“Five-nine, thanks!”

The activator may then move on to the next station.

Congratulations.

You just made a POTA contact.

And somewhere, another ham just added another contact to their log.

What About a Pileup?

Eventually you’re going to find a POTA station that has attracted a lot of operators.

You’ll hear something that sounds like:

“K5ABC!”

“W4XYZ!”

“N7DEF!”

“KF5WZD!”

“W1…”

Everybody is calling at once.

Welcome to a pileup.

This can be intimidating at first, but there’s a technique to it.

Don’t yell louder than everyone else.

It usually doesn’t work.

Listen carefully.

The activator may pick out a partial callsign, a prefix, a suffix, or a particular station.

If you hear:

“The station ending in WZD, go ahead.”

That’s your turn.

Give your callsign clearly and then stop transmitting.

If they don’t hear you, don’t immediately transmit again.

Let the next station have a chance.

The activator will come back around.

This is where good operating etiquette becomes really important.

POTA Isn’t a Contest to See Who Can Transmit the Loudest

One of the great things about POTA is that it can teach you something that isn’t always obvious when you first get on HF:

Good operators know when not to transmit.

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

If someone else has been recognized, don’t transmit over them.

If you didn’t hear your callsign, don’t assume they were talking to you.

And if you make a contact, get out of the way so someone else can make theirs.

Remember that there may be dozens of operators trying to work the same station.

Your contact may take 10 seconds.

Someone else’s may take 10 seconds.

Multiply that by 50 or 100 operators and you can see why keeping things short and efficient matters.

Good POTA operators aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest signals.

They’re often the ones who listen, understand what’s happening, and know when it’s their turn.

That’s a lesson that applies to amateur radio far beyond POTA.

And Then There’s the Other Side: Activating a Park

Eventually, you may decide you want to try the other side of POTA.

Go activate a park.

This is where POTA really starts getting fun.

You don’t need an elaborate setup.

You can take a small radio, battery, antenna, coax, and a chair into the park.

Set everything up.

Get your antenna in the air.

Turn on the radio.

Find a clear frequency.

Listen.

Then call CQ.

You might start with something like:

“CQ POTA, CQ POTA, this is KF5WZD, activating [park reference].”

And then…

Wait.

Maybe nobody answers.

Call again.

Still nothing?

Call again.

Then suddenly:

“K4…”

And you’re off.

The first few contacts can be slow.

Then you may get five stations calling at once.

That’s when you discover another important HF skill:

Learning how to control a pileup.

But don’t worry about being perfect.

You’ll get better with every activation.

And that’s another great thing about POTA.

Every activation teaches you something.

Maybe your antenna wasn’t high enough.

Maybe your battery didn’t last as long as you expected.

Maybe you discovered that sitting in the direct Mississippi sun with a black radio case wasn’t your greatest idea.

Maybe you learned that the 20-meter band was packed while 40 meters was wide open.

That’s all part of it.

POTA Is More Than Collecting Contacts

It’s easy to get caught up in the numbers.

How many parks have you worked?

How many states?

How many contacts?

How many bands?

Those things can be fun, and there’s nothing wrong with chasing the numbers.

But I think POTA’s greatest benefit is something else.

It gets people on the air.

It gives new operators a reason to learn their radios.

It encourages people to experiment with antennas.

It gets us outside.

It introduces operators to HF.

It teaches operating etiquette.

And perhaps most importantly, it gives experienced operators an opportunity to help new operators learn.

I’ve seen plenty of operators get their first HF contact through POTA.

I’ve also seen experienced hams become more confident operators simply because they started taking their radios into the field and putting them to work.

And that’s something worth encouraging.

Where Do I Find POTA Activations?

Once you understand what POTA is, the next question is probably:

“Okay, where do I find these activators?”

There are several websites and tools that can help you find parks that are being activated, see what bands and modes are being used, and even follow an activation as it happens.

We’re going to save that discussion for the next article in this series, where we’ll look at finding POTA activations, figuring out where they are operating, and—most importantly—how to actually make that first contact.

We’ll also talk about some of the tools available to hunters and how to use them without becoming completely dependent on a computer or phone.

Because eventually, you should be able to sit down at your radio, spin the dial, hear “CQ POTA”, and know exactly what to do.

That’s where the fun really starts.

You Don’t Have to Have the Perfect Station

If you’re a newly licensed General and HF seems intimidating, don’t let it scare you away.

And if you’ve been licensed for 20 years but have never activated a park, don’t let that stop you either.

You don’t need the perfect radio.

You don’t need the perfect antenna.

You don’t need a huge amplifier.

And you certainly don’t need to know everything before you start.

Start with what you have.

Learn the basics.

Listen.

Ask questions.

Pay attention to how experienced operators conduct themselves.

Make a few contacts.

Then make a few more.

Before long, you’ll find yourself explaining to another operator how a POTA pileup works.

That’s how the hobby grows.

Get Outside. Get On the Air.

POTA has given thousands of amateur radio operators a reason to get outside, get on the air, and make contacts.

For some, it may be their first real introduction to HF.

For others, it may be the excuse they’ve needed to finally take that radio out of the shack.

Either way, POTA gives us something pretty simple:

A reason to go play radio.

And honestly, that’s what amateur radio should be about.

Get Outside.

Get On the Air.

Get in the Park.

But most importantly…

HAVE FUN and Keep it Simple!!

73 KF5WZD – Chris