Also shout out to Summits on the Air; same idea, but for mountain/hill/local-prominence-tops: <a href="https://sotl.as/" rel="nofollow">https://sotl.as/</a><p>It's real easy to get your Technician class license in the US, which will get you limited line of sight range via VHF/UHF and a few other misc. bands. General class unlocks High Frequency operation which allows you to talk around the globe with the right radio.<p>For my field operations, I use a handheld 12V battery pack and a (tr)uSDX, a souped-up ATMega platform that does QRP (<=5W power) operations via CW (Morse code) and SSB (voice). It's the cheapest radio out there that will reliably do (passable) quality SSB, and it's real handy to have something so tiny and light when I'm heading out to hike up a mountain.<p>This is everything I take into the field, and have talked to people states and countries away when geomagnetic conditions were favorable (being on top of a mountain helps haha): <a href="https://i.imgur.com/HOx5buc.jpeg" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/HOx5buc.jpeg</a><p>Full kit breakdown: <a href="https://imgur.com/gallery/ultralightish-tr-usdx-sota-shack-box-kit-QPuv1d9" rel="nofollow">https://imgur.com/gallery/ultralightish-tr-usdx-sota-shack-b...</a>
I'm a ham radio operator but don't currently have the means for a decent HF antenna where I live. I like making contacts, but I'm not much for small talk and conversations. Contests are fun for me, even though I'm not at all a professional at it and likely will never be. The problem is, there's not always a contest running.<p>POTA is amazing because it lets me toss up a temporary antenna on any arbitrary weekend and still have a good chance of making a few SSB contacts. Especially now with the solar cycle at its maximum.<p>Thank you to all the people who go and activate parks! You are awesome!
If you're wanting to see who's active right now, <a href="https://pota.app" rel="nofollow">https://pota.app</a> is more useful.<p>And if you don't have a radio, and want to hear the conversations, check out a web SDR like this one: <a href="https://www.sdrutah.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.sdrutah.org/</a>
The website does a real terrible job explaining what exactly this is. I know it's related to amateur radio. Is it some nationwide capture the flag game or something?
Note that there's not only Phone/Voice, but also CW and digital modes (Like FT8), so it's possible not to speak with ppl at all and still do the activation.
My dad and I have been participating in this for a bit (he's the actual operator, I just log stuff), and it's been pretty fun. Gotten me out to local places I hadn't been before despite living here nearly 30yrs.<p>Our setup isn't really all that fancy, he takes one of his normal radios and with the help of some kind of special adapter, connects it directly to one of those big 12v deep cycle marine batteries. Antenna wise we have this triple magnet mounting thing that we drop on the top of his truck, and one of us (meaning me) screws one of several different band specific Ham sticks. We usually just stick to 20m because that seems to be where most people are. Logging is usually just me writing stuff down manually on a legal pad, but this last time he found a logging app that seemed to support POTA specifically so we just used that on a laptop connected to my phone's hotspot feature.
Just chased a POTA/SOTA activator yesterday on 2m -- conveniently from the comfort of my own home hahah, just doing my part to help the other station get enough contacts of course! :D
POTA is what made me get more into CW. I'm not 100% CW and I do POTA activation videos on YouTube (when I remember to bring my GoPro with me on trips).<p>I typically use an Elecraft KX2 and Chelegance MC-750 vertical (and you'd be hard pressed to get me to switch to another antenna. Sure, an EFHW packs up small, but getting it up in a tree requires more time/effort/kit)<p>I've also activated with a truSDX, QMX, and MTR3b. Behind my KX2, the QMX is a great little CW radio. The truSDX is alright, but the QMX is superior.
I’ve been a ham operator since 1999, and in 2020 started doing POTA. It is a blast, the ability to get out in the sunshine, and play radio is an awesome combination!
I feel like there is some implied knowledge I am missing. This describes what this is:<p>> Welcome to the Parks on the Air(POTA) site for international portable amateur radio operations that promote emergency awareness and communications from national/federal and state/provincial level parks.<p>The first part, alright, but the second part? Why are we promoting using a ham radio within a national/state level park? Why is there "awards" (certificates mostly) for doing this? Why is this work important?<p>For those in the "in-group" I'm sure this all makes complete sense. For me, I don't get it.
Have a similar service locally to me. I like to scout out wireless pops, so I started hunting their sites down. As they are an NFP I determined it might be cheap to colocate with them. One of their primary relay sites in my city had been completely abandoned. Power cut, comms box trashed and looted. And the tower looked nearly unclimbable. Sad really because it was pretty deep in the bush and likely prime location for their service.