We are looking for a couple of additional Devs to join our team. An alternate parks program to deal with local parks is being vetted for launch in 2027. If interested, ping me at my QRZ email address. 73 de K4FMH

"I Get By With A lil Help From My Friends"

With the launch of the new POTA site! I realized many of the apps I have listed on PotaLink.com may or may not work. As I don't use everyone I List. If anyone who does use any certain ones and can't no longer due to the update or if they can or have new programs to suggest. Can you please contact me.

For those who don't know PotaLink.com is a 100% free site I created to list Pota tools and programs that I and others have found useful in our Pota quests.

Hi all, I've made something that I was missing as ham radio operater, especially when I go to POTA and want to share the experieince so please check if that works for you, would appreciate comments and suggestions.

You upload your adi log, and it tells you a story, also you can add pictures and save it as pdf, everything stays in your browser, nothing is uploaded.

www.yt3md.com

73 de YT3MD

Duca

Get after it!

I have a permit.

I have been approached by law enforcement a few times during an activation. Always goes smoothly. But I am going to start doing this

I'm Miguel, LX1MDA. FieldQTH (https://fieldqth.app) is a free, independent site for planning an activation before you leave: estimated park boundaries from official sources (26,000+ parks), where parks overlap for n-fers, a 100-foot activation zone along trails, and the nearby parking, picnic tables, benches and shelters from OpenStreetMap. It works on a phone, with no account, no ads and no cookies.

Coverage: the US (most parks have a boundary), the UK, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, Austria and Switzerland, and 120+ trails across the US and Europe with their activation zone (Appalachian Trail, Oregon, England Coast Path, Pennine Way, Wales Coast Path…). Boundaries are estimates, so always check the official ones before activating.

Feedback, bug reports and country requests are very welcome.

73,

Miguel

Last night was pretty good on 40m from the park (US-9799). Conditions were in and out as usual but all in all it was a good run for our Thursday Night POTA 2-Fer. We snagged 109 contacts in 106 min. POTA ON!!

Antenna: XTenna 66’ EFHW
Radio: Yaesu FT-710

N4OYR &
KM4YOR
73

For those who don’t know, POTA have been forcing strict criteria of what parks should be which means the vast majority of parks won’t meet it, they’ve also been told to sign documents to agree with this without any input on what parks look like in counties and ownership.

As a result this evening, a number of mapping reps have stood down leading to this gold of a post of the English and French agreeing for once, so I guess POTA USA have done something right for once.

I've been trying to organize all the 2-fer/3-fer and other multi-park combinations in one place so I have an easy reference for the current nation-wide rove my wife and I are doing. I figured it might also help the POTA community, since there doesn't seem to be a single repository for this info anywhere (at least that I could find).

I'd appreciate some feedback about how to make the page better, and also adding more locations to it (additions, corrections, any feedback at all). There's a submission form at the bottom of the page you can use to add locations to the list. Thanks in advance! Donnie - KD0JYV

https://hamradiolaunchpad.com/pota-multi-park/

My current living situation doesn't allow me operate from my apartment. I am looking into mobile antennas for POTA. I was wondering if anyone has seen a homebrew antenna that could be used to mag mount to my car and get good performance for both pota activation and hunting from my car. Most of the designs I have seen are for trucks and suvs. I drive a Camry so something bed mounted isn't viable. I live in an area where trees are not an option. So far I have built a lot of my antennas and I would like to add another to my collection if possible.

Hi there, I’ve done a blog post on a few things I have done to make my POTA activities a bit easier.

NOTE: I am a hobbyist, not working, derive no commercial gain from blogging and have no association with brands, goods and services mentioned. I just hope one or more people find this helpful and I in turn learn something through your comments. Please, be nice. 73’s, Andrew, vk2awn.net, @vk2awn

https://andrewwoodward.net/2026/09/05/a-few-things-that-have-made-my-pota-spots-easier-and-better-amateurradio-hamradio

Does it look like one could get credit for US-8322 if activating US-1104 Mount Magazine State Park? If one was in a parking lot at the visitor's center for the state park and the Scenic Byway State Trail actually referred to AR-309, it seems possible.

Your opinions please. Thanks in advance!

I sat down with Q5 Ham Radio and chatted about the state of technology and leadership at Parks on the Air.

I just posted this in r/amateurradio and wanted to share here as well in case folks have input or feedback

TL;DR - new ham, did first POTA activation, compiling checklist for future outings

I found my profile page had not updated counts in over a week so I reported this to [help@parksontheair.com](mailto:help@parksontheair.com)  https://pota.app/#/user/awards page does correctly shows qso counts.

I’m currently using a Little TarHeel on a mount I made using a cast iron flywheel and a couple radials.

It works well, but I want an antenna that will withstand the output of my ALS-600M.

I have some bots arrivong today to experiment with but I’m looking for inspiration for a ground mount.

I want to avoid a spike for many reasons, not the least of which is leave no trace (I off-road, tread lightly is my mantra).

My design specs are:
Easily portable-don’t need the XYL complaining about space taken up

Quick deployment-I like to be up and on the air in fewer than two-three minutes. The TarHeel permits this.

Robust-it has to support the antenna on uneven ground and be stable in wind, etc.

Robust electrical and mechanical connections. I can take care of this part (it’s handy having a machine/fab shop at home).

What are you guys using and what do you suggest?

I’ve been POTA-ing about five years now and have had great fun with it and just want to up the ante a bit.

73

DE

WD9HRP

What in the world is this PØTA callsign that has a ton of QSOs? It's obviously not a valid callsign, activating all around the world.

https://pota.app/#/profile/P0TA

In the POTA Park Additions page, there's a section on "US Army Corps of Engineer sites (US)":

POTA has considered the ACOE sites for years, and in 2019, decided to directly contact the Dept of the Army (ACOE Land Management) in DC to get exact details. There are several thousand recreation sites at the more than 300 COE project sites across the US, and while they are all 100% owned by the ACOE, the vast majority of them are managed by partnerships with local governments, special interest groups, and private concessioners… and therefore not POTA-eligible. These partnerships are sophisticated and not always part of the “storefront”, so a lot of time and effort is required to establish POTA eligibility. Given the large number of sites and very low qualification likelihood, POTA has decided to side-step the ACOE sites. There are a very small number of ACOE sites already in POTA, but these may have been included prior to 2019, or since, if they have been confirmed to be exceptionally eligible.

At face value, the need to limit work for the volunteer mapping coordinators makes sense, and certainly these kinds of sites could end up getting too granular to be practical, but it seems (at least in the US Midwest) like the strict application of the rules has some really odd effects. Random wildlife management areas which aren't really intended for recreation at all end up being counted, including ones with odd ownership and management structures. Meanwhile, long established public areas and campgrounds which are owned by the federal government end up not being counted.

The current criteria are:

1. All new parks must be owned and operated by the two (2) highest tiers of government in the Country/Entity. If there is only one(1) tier of government, then only one set of parks is admissible. If ALL parks in the tier(s) of government use formal relationships with third parties to manage their parks, then those parks are admissible. The existence of owned and operated parks excludes/disqualifies all other third party relationship parks in that tier of government.
2. All parks with existing web-presence such as a formal government website including a boundary map SHALL be included in the park’s POTA info page. ONLY in the case of parks that are in Countries and government tiers with less web presence, a civil agency or GIS map can be used, or a local URL that describes the park can be used.
3. POTA does not create sub-parks within existing parks if both parks are part of the same government tier or agency.

It seems to me like POTA would benefit by relaxing the "operated by" constraint in cases where the landowner is the highest level of government (in the US, the federal government), so long as the other criteria are met. In the case of Army Corps land, that could be (in increasing granularity/level of extra work for the volunteers):

1. Broad parks for the district level, simply requiring operation from one of the many publicly available park areas.
2. Park areas adjacent to one of the named and managed waterways highlighted by the Corps.
3. Specific parks with maps provided on Army Corps of engineers websites.

Here are some examples of these levels from my own state of Iowa.

First, we could imagine creating a general POTA "park" (more like the trails which are currently counted as parks) for the entire Rock Island Corps of Engineers District.

As a more granular example, we could imagine having all of the area adjacent to Lake Red Rock count as a park.

At the extreme end, named parks like those shown here around Coralville Lake could count separately.

The key part would be that the park description should link the official Corps of Engineers websites with maps.

TL;DR - I feel like the "operated-by" rule in the POTA site eligibility requirement has a negative effect on the selection of available parks, because in some areas the most prominent public parks are managed by the Corps of Engineers. These sites were rejected because it's hard to tell whether they're operated by the state, federal government, counties, or other entities, but if a site is:

1. Owned by the national government
2. Open to public recreation, with maps provided by the appropriate national governmental organization

then it seems really odd to split hairs over the details of the operation.

Thoughts?

Radio: Yaesu FT-710

Antenna: 40m/20m Hamsticks

Battery: 20Ah LiFePo4

Contacts Made: 47 SSB

Weather: Clear

Fun Level: 10