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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
