245 thoughts on “The ARRL POTA Book Prize Package Giveaway!”

1. POTA is new since I last operated. As I brush up my code and put together equipment, going portable and having an excuse to be outside has really caught my interest. QRPer is an inspiring resource!

2. I love that POTA gets me out in the field, testing my kit and knowledge. Every contact I make is grateful for my efforts, and managing the occasional pileup is a crucible for developing better skills. I can’t wait until my developing CW fluency allows me to use the radios I have built! Always an adventure!

3. POTA not online let you to practice amateur radio en plein air, but also espose you more to pedestrians, giving you the precious chance to show and explain them ham radio!

4. First activation, 100+ contacts in about an hour. I know they don’t always go like that, but being on the receiving end of a run like that was exciting. Love that it can be as easy as running a mobile station inside the park boundaries, to full portable with solar on a picnic table. It truly is what you make it. It has been a great addition to my enjoyment of the hobby.

5. It gives you the excuse to get out of the chair & explore. Explore the parks, explore the terrain, explore being with your family on outings camping & getting some exercise and making real memories. Just bring your gold metal detector and life will be complete! Idea: for some real contact satisfaction when there is a bit of wind make that low power count and bring your very stable lightweight 8′ delta kite with 250′ of RG174 and fly your vertical dipole at 200′ with a 7+ knot wind be up there in 1 minute. Yes, light weight coax for a higher gain dipole with streamers. Kite mobile will really pull them in at 200′

6. I have always loved to operate portable whether on Field Day or a POTA activation. I have always been an avid hiker so POTA operating is a natural for me. The current choices for rigs, antennas and batteries make POTA operations a pleasure and the hiking still keeps me in shape. Love experimenting with different antennas and radios.

7. POTA makes it easier for me to make contacts. I live in an HOA community and am using compromised antennas most of the time. Knowing where to find the activators and getting a feel for my modest stations performance is a positive influence on getting me on the air. Also reading of their adventures is encouraging me to pursue activations myself. I do envy the plethora of parks that are available in some of these areas; central Florida is a bit sparse. Maybe there needs to be an APOTA (Amusement Parks On The Air) program. : )
   73,
   Bob – W4ZY

   1. Bob,
      Try an isotron antenna for 40 meters at 1.5 feet tall and foot wide and takes full legal power, and doesn’t look like an antenna, cover it with plastic flowers or a mag loop for 40-15 meters MFJ or a more efficient dual mag loop that takes (125 watts or more.) I have a 40 and 75 meter Isotron version along with a 160 meter 7 foot version. Mag loops can be inside the house as well or up in attic vertical or horizontal and you can tune to any freq 40-15. Paint them gray. The 40 isotron you can even mount on a direct TV dish (support arm) off side of building. Rich / NJ6F

      1. Thank you for the information Rich. I will look into it. Hoping to put up a flagpole antenna assuming I can get by the HOA folks. As long as they see just a flagpole, I should be fine.

8. I enjoy CW POTA, and in particular activations, because then I’m the DX and pileups are fun! Of course operating outdoors with low power and wire antennas makes the whole experience more magical.

9. Just getting back into Ham and POTA looks like an exciting/fun way to get there.

10. I love doing POTA and would donate yhe prize to a fellow Amateur who I have been elmering. I have taken him with me on a few POTA activations and working on getting him more active with on air experience. POTA is the perfect activity for everyone, having medical restrictions pushed me into retirement at 51, I used to to hunting , camping, fly fishing, mountain hiking before my condition worsened. But I always had my Amateur Radio ticket to have fun. POTA has given me a new look on a hobby that I have been involved in for almost 30 years. Yes, you have DXCC. WAS, CQWPX,CQWAZ, but what next after you’ve done those? Well, POTA, you can be both a Hunter and an Activator. I can hunt Parks from home, and also drive to most parks and be an Activator from my vehicle giving me two things, a new place to view and visit, and more QSOs in the logbook with fellow Amateurs around the world. Plus the added Award incentive system, both for Hunters and Activators, gives an extra personal challenge to an already vast hobby. 73 Matt NA1Q

11. A friend of mine and his wife, who are both Ham Radio Operators, introduced me to POTA at Field Day in 2022, bringing their class C camper to the event and running the event from a table set up on the side of the camper. My wife, who was recently diagnosed with stage 4 duodenal cancer, had been wanting to get the South Carolina visit all State parks in a year award. She also wants to get a camper van. I figured this would be a good way to combine both our interests in the time she has left. Plus, I like the idea of being able to set up communications virtually anywhere at any time.

12. Different parks offer very different and beautiful scenery.

13. Have been a POTA hunter for a couple years. What is not to like?
    Turn on radio, find activator, make contact with carefully put together station, 73 and move on. Occasionally a brief exchange, way more friendly than contests. Can have fun with a modest station, occasionally even QRP.
    The activators are also using modest equipment.
    Great fun to fine tune your filters and dsp on the receiver and extract out the faint stations, and score the signal report and away! Getting to know your radio certainly applies here.

    73
    ..

14. Parks on the air is great.Enjoy talking to people all over.The different antenna set ups the varying propogation and power used gives a person invaluable information that will be essential in the future.

15. I was introduced to POTA by my two friends (Keith KY4KK and Tommy NG4S). They started to
    activate parks together and invited me on one of the activations so I could see what it was like first hand.
    That’s all it took, and I was hooked! POTA has brought life back into the Amateur Radio Hobby for me.
    I’ve always enjoyed CW, so I had something in common with Tommy as he operates CW exclusively.
    For almost two years now I have loved hunting POTA stations but especially look forward to activating
    a park each week with my friends (Keith KY4KK and Tommy NG4S). LIFE IS GOOD! Steve W4JM

16. Parks on the Air has completely changed the way a lot of hams (me included) look at the hobby. Everyday is a real Field Day. Many POTA sites are beautiful parks, with lakes, rivers, wildlife, mountains, trails and nature as a backdrop to enjoy while putting together your portable radio gear. And once you are on the spotting page the hunters come looking for you, creating thrilling pileups. Nothing else in the hobby compares.

    73 de NG9T
    Gary Faust

17. The offspring of National Parks on The Air from 2016, it’s good to see POTA still going strong 7 years later. I thoroughly enjoy hunting POTA stations and I promise myself that I will get an activation in someday.

    73 – KA2R

18. Having moved into a condo where I could not have an antenna I gave up operating. Then our daughter bought a cottage and my interest returned. But operating hit and miss on weekends left me wanting more.
    Discovered POTA and my prayers were answered. I had found a way to operate daily if I desired from many parks that were close to my location.

    Tom Rosebush VE3KZE

19. There are several things I love about POTA, first is being outdoors; second is doing more with less, not just RF power wise, but equipment wise; third, learning how to work out, and in some cases work through, issues with your system, learning how to improve it. Many parks hunted, but only one attempted, and failed due to equipment problems, activation, but looking forward to more.

20. POTA engages the soul of the operator, while you survey mountains, trees, and rivers, and it allows you to share this uplifting spirit with other ham radio operators. RF can be good, but RFR (rocks, forests, river) is even better.
    Bill AG5ZN

21. Hi Thomas. POTA is my favorite thing about this hobby! I love building antennas, operating with small QRP stations, and marrying ham radio with the outdoors. Plus, being in the military gives me opportunities to visit places around the world I wouldn’t otherwise be able to.

    Thanks for putting this giveaway together

    de K4ZSR

22. The program is a tremendously positive and successful movement for radio amateurs who love the great outdoors.
    POTA is like Field Day every day and QRP is magic! It’s the perfect combination of outdoors and ham radio fun.

23. Pota gives hams an opportunity to test their gear in the field and work a pile up any day of the week. I really enjoy chasing and thd occasional activation.

24. I want to get started in the POTA program because it looks interesting. It allows you to be outside operating. And it tests your skills in setting up and operating out in the environment. This would be similar to EMCOMM operations.

25. POTA is a reminder that the shack is an optional element and that the basics require very little indeed.

    1. POTA is a great way to practice and hone our skillsets as operators. It gives us the opportunity to break the past norms of the hobby and gets us into the outdoors and around the general public where we can be ambassadors for amateur radio. It’s been great to learn from our activations such things as station/gear inventory control, maintaining of gear and equipment, minimal station requirements that bring efficient results. – all while enjoying a great hobby! Even if the bands are in the dumps…a terrible “bands” day doing POTA is better than a good day at work!

26. Being a fairly frequent POTA Hunter has given me a lot of enjoyment for the past several years. It is amazing how many Activators are out there everyday, warming the ether. Their signals and operating techniques are generally excellent. Thanks to them, for sure!

    73′ Ed – K8DSS

27. I think pota has it’s place in ham radio I just try to check into a park whenever I can to help those that are out there in a park.

28. Fantastic to sharpen horizont of places together with ham spirit equippment of technic. Best 73 Helmar dl1kvc

29. A great way to help keep our hobby alive and t encourage younger folks to join.

    de AA2XY

30. Have a BIL who’s a little older and been HAM for a while. He gave me his old Yaesu handheld transceiver but I don’t know how to make real use of it.
    QRP appeals to me enough that I spent a few months playing the morse app to learn the letters.
    Not sure how far I’ll take it but still interested enough to follow this site for a couple years…

31. 73′ Kenny – AI4DV

32. What’s not to love ?
    POTA brings ham radio goodwill to the public.

33. Thomas-

    POTA has given me a great opportunity to learn about antennas, batteries, and CW while chasing a group of like-minded hams on the air. Plus, the groups that “POTA” all the time will have no issues when it comes to Field Day!

34. I am an instructor at LICW focusing on getting new students on the air. Between the great POTA website and the consistent QSO protocol, being a POTA hunter has been the easiest path to “on air” for both myself and many of my students. Once the POTA QSO has been mastered, many of the contest protocols are easily within reach. It is a great place to start with CW.

35. Being outside is great for mental health; experimenting with different equipment; learned how to minimize my field setup; being outside with people of like mind; having my wife, who tolerates my passion, accompany me. For me, it’s not about how many QSOs I get. It’s about how I get them. Each activation is an exercise to refine the process, as well as mentor each person who catches the bug and decides to come along.

36. POTA is what ham radio is all about. Going out and setting up an amateur radio station to activate a park with minimal equipment is what a POTA activator should be practicing to gain experience for when there is a real emergency.

37. NPOTA was fun and the POTA program has kept the fun going for years. I have enjoyed chasing and look forward to activaty parks soon. – KA1LOR

38. I enjoy POTA because it is such an accessible program and it creates opportunities at nearly any time of any day for anybody to get on the air and be successful in contacting many stations! Since participating in POTA I have been operating so much more in the last year than I have the entire time I have been licensed. It even helped me to learn morse code!

    de KN4YTA

39. POTA is the most exhaustive activity a ham can do! It gets you out and do light exercise in the nature, and you are keeping your skills sharp by doing a mini field-day every time. Each POTA trip is an opportunity to improve on any hiccups of the previous one, and it gets you better each and every time. I highly encourage all hams to try it out!

40. POTA is great getting outdoors an being able to play radio. I love being able to setup a portable mast, a wire and a QRP radio and make contacts around the world.

    73,
    Marc KN6RKK

41. POTA is a wonderful game.It makes you go outside in beautiful places and make easy QSOs. My First QSO as a new ham was a POTA.
    73 de IU8PWP

42. I have seen a ham during a POTA. Looked like fun. I think I would enjoy this part of the hobby.

43. Learning about POTA has me motivated to get my gear organized and my field kits in order!

44. I spend a lot of time outdoors and hiking during the warmer months and my only HF station (Elecraft KX1) is also portable so I have a great interest in POTA activations in the future. I am currently in the process of learning CW so I can utilize the radio I currently have so I can start participating.

45. My favorite excuse to get outdoors!
    Kj7gg

46. POTA hunting gives me a great way to check how well my low power station is working. The ops in the parks copy weak signals and respond with useful signal reports. It is great fun!

47. I have joined POTA in November 2023. I like the concept and the mission of the program. I made 3 activations so far and had more than 350 QSOs already in the log. I also love hunting when not activating. I am impressed for the size of the pile-up I can get running low power on a portable set up and I have the feeling that it is quite easy to make contacts down to the noise level. 73 IW2MJQ.

48. POTA arrive at a good time for me as I was retiring and learning CW. I have no station at home so POTA is a great way to practice my CW outside of my house . Thanks to all the chasers and thanks for all the repeats..
    VA2IDX

49. POTA has increased my interest in operating and improving my cw skills. KG8NK

50. I am attempting a comeback to radio after a long hiatus. I have registered with POTA and am in the process of getting a station operational and my speed up. It truly amazes me that after maybe 35 years I can still copy around 12 wpm rather easily. Of course, in my day you had to! POTA seems ideal for a QRP operator working towards a QRP WAS since you can search for needed states and then try to work them.

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