Mike & Key POTA
We have setup a Groups.io page for POTA at Parks on the Air (POTA). If you don't have a Groups.io account, create a free account. If you are not part of the Groups.io POTA page, you can select the "+ Join This Group" Button.
A resent update to the Groups.io POTA page was
POTA Adventures 2025, Let's Do This, reviewed
POTA Adventures 2025
Hello all of you Mike & Key members that are looking forward to the first Mike & Key POTA Adventure in 2025.
I hope that you all had the opportunity to view my presentation at the December, 21 Club meeting. If you did not have the opportunity, you can view it on the Mike & Key ARC POTA Groups.io page You will see the presentation as an MS PowerPoint presentation and the two tools that I built using Excel.
The POTA Park Reference.xlsx shows all the parks associated with POTA Park Numbers. The other tool shows all the Washington State Parks location, County, Size and links, the distances are from Enumclaw. You can use this tool to find parks near your QTH or anywhere else in Washington. It also has associated links that describe the park's details.
The power point presentation has many links and describes what a POTA Adventure is and how it will work. The " 12212024 Parks On The Air M&K FINAL Rev A" just changes the date from June, which did fall on ARRL Field Day to July.
In the presentation, really look at the Activator Teaming and Hunter Teaming, pages 28-31. Teaming is an idea for those without experience or are "Mic-Shy" to team with someone who is experienced and provide some mentoring and show that POTA or any portable operation is not intimidating and is a lot of fun. Remembering too , that the goal of the POTA Adventure is to have fun, see pg. 31.
Check out the parks near your QTH. Check out the parks on the Pacific Coast or in Eastern Washington, we are blessed with so many great parks. Also don't forget the National Parks and National Forests, check pages 16, 22, 23, and 26; In many cases a picture is worth 1000 words.
On Page 24 of the presentation are some very good books that will tell you all about POTA. Page 15 has a link to a great video about a new Ham's first POTA activation with Thomas, K4SWL.
And you don't have to wait until April for your first POTA. Go to the POTA Spots page' find an activator and listen to how he works with the Hunters. Be a Hunter, have fun.
For those that do not have an HF rig or are not set up for HF operations in their shack a great resource is the KiwiSDR website. You can Hunt for Anyone on the air, POTA or not at any time. Great tool I encourage you to check it out. What you can to with this is go to POTA website, click on SPOTS and then find Activators, you can Hunt by Band, Mode or Park. Once you have found an Activator you want to listen to, enter the frequency into the KIWI control panel and you will hear the Activator calling CQ POTA, CQ POTA and also hear all of the Hunters responding to him.
Below is a screenshot when you get to the KIWI SDR site, with a few annotations to help you control and view the tool. The frequency below was a POTA Activator.
