Parks on the air
I had the opportunity to get on the radio this afternoon and at the same time, I had called up the DX Heat cluster on my PC to see what was happening on the bands. I noticed a few POTA (Parks on the Air) stations being spotted and I know of a POTA site that gave more info regarding the activations. I was shocked that in all of 10 minutes, I made 3 contacts. From reading my blog roll Parks on the Air and Summits on the Air are very popular. All these contacts I made were CW but SSB is very popular as well. There were more that I heard but was unable to make contact with as they had a pileup and their signal slowly faded away. I give these ops lots of credit, they pick up and go, have a minimal setup and its very cold this time of year as well.
Mike,
I have been hunting POTA activators for over four years now (with a noticeable gap in 2021 and 2022, due to work pressures), and I mainly hunt on CW and FT8, with the occasional SSB contact (mainly because I’ve got a less than optimal antenna, and the SSB pileups are generally HUGE!).
I have great respect for all of the activators, regardless of what mode they use. I’ve activated four times with our local club, and it is quite fun. I’m hoping to activate more this winter season (in Florida, winter isn’t nearly as bad as it is where you are ).
73, Howard
AC4FS
Good morning Howard and nice to hear from you, I would agree that it’s a cooler place here in the winter. I was shocked to see the activity on 20m yesterday afternoon regarding POTA. Even more so the pile up that in lots of cases happened. I may venture down the hall this afternoon and see if I can log a few more.
73,
Mike
VE9KK