POTA schmota… What’s a POTA anyways?!?
What if you could do Field Day whenever YOU wanted? Called in dead to work, looking for something other than a mind numbing employability task to do for the day? Hows about having a mini Field Day experience? That’s POTA in a nutshell.
POTA stands for Parks On The Air. It basically works like this.
1) you register on POTA website – https://pota.app/#/
2) you pick a park to “activate” which means you’re committing to setting up your radio gear and operating from that location for a set amount of time
3) once done playing radio, you submit your contact logs and update the website that you have closed your station
That’s all there is to it. It’s Field Day on your terms and your sched. Parks must be state or national parks but still you have plenty of options. POTA is a great option for those of us that are tired of the intense heat and summer rains that always seem to happen on Summer Field Day weekend.
Here’s a well done video that gives you the POTA experience as a single operator, out in the middle of nowhere. Proof that anyone with even modest gear can get their outdoor ham radio fix on a moments notice by being part of the POTA movement.
