I’ve just learned that the Parks On The Air (POTA) admin is in the process of cleaning up and reorganizing the way Programs, Locations, DX Entities, and Parks are stored in its database.
Many thanks to Alan (W2AEW) who shared a link to this document which explains what they’re doing and even links to logs as they implement these changes.
In short, this will have an effect on activators, especially, because there’s a decent chance you will be using a new park prefix, and in some cases, possibly new park numbers.
A number of POTA prefixes have changed already.
In fact, if you’re activating in Canada, you might have already noticed that the park prefix is no longer VE, but is now CA.
As an example, in my activator logbook, what was once VE-1596 (Hog’s Back Conservation Reserve) is now CA-1596.
Here in the States, the prefix will soon change from K to US.
These prefix changes will happen for many other countries as well.
Of course there’s nothing, as an activator or hunter, you need to do other than start using the new prefix when it has been implemented. All of your old logs will automatically update in the POTA system with the new prefixes and/or numbers.
It might take time for logging applications like HAMRS to adjust to new prefixes. Activators might need to use the old prefix while live-logging during an activation, then use a find/replace string in a text editor later to fix the ADIF file.
Again, check out this document on the POTA website which goes into much more detail.
Thanks again, Alan, for the tip!