POTA and SOTA
POTA - Parks on the Air
Parks on the Air (POTA) is an activity program that encourages licensed hams to visit designated parks or public lands and set up portable radio operations from there. The POTA website suggest that this portable operation promotes emergency awareness and communications. POTA allows driving to your site and operating from your vehicle, which SOTA does not.
In POTA, the “activator” is the ham who goes to a park in the official list and sets up a station, then makes contacts. The “hunter” (called a chaser in SOTA) is the ham who contacts the activator from any location. Both activator and hunter can earn awards based on contacts, parks activated/hunted, bands used, etc. In POTA, the hunter does not have to upload logs to receive credit. When the activator uploads his/her logs, the hunter automatically receives credit. POTA requires 10 contacts to have a “successful” activation.
SOTA - Summits on the AIR
Summits on the Air (SOTA) is an activity for amateur radio operators where you set up and operate your station from a mountain summit. The summits are assigned points based on elevation and there are scoring systems for both activators and chasers. The “activator” is the operator who goes up the summit and makes contacts. The “chaser” (called a “hunter” in POTA) is another operator at home, or elsewhere, who tries to contact the activator. Both activators and chasers can earn points/awards. Unlike POTA, SOTA, hasers must upload their own logs to get credit. Since SOTA operation, by definition occurs from relatively high locations, using 2-meter and 440 (VHF and UHF) handy talkies is a viable alternative. Thus, this is a greate activity for hams with a Technician class license. SOTA requires 4 contacts to have a successful activation.
POTA Presentation
At the September 2nd, 2025, regular meeting, Claude AC4SH gave a presentation on how POTA has increased club activities and participation over the last 5 years. He also covered the upcoming club POTA events and Georgia State Parks on the Air. You can watch the presentation on Youtube and download his PowerPoint.
POTA Resources
POTA Park Finder - is a utility to help find parks you have not yet activated or have not been activated at all.
POTA Map - shows parks in your area as well as very good representations of the park boundaries. Also shows SOTA summits, if you turn it on using the layers option in the top right corner.
POTA Spotting Page
SOTA Presentation
At the October 7, 2025, meeting, Bill KQ4PGV gave a program on Summits on the Air - SOTA. You can download his PowerPoint presentation.
SOTA Resources
SOTA Atlas - an interactive map website that shows Summits on the Air (SOTA) mountain peaks along with activations, alerts, and radio spots from activators.
Find North Georgia Summits on a map.
See a list of North Georgia Summits.
See who is activating SOTA on the spotting page.
When looking for summints you might activate, be sure you drill down to the level of these examples: Blood Mountain and Rabun Bald. At this level, you can see trail descriptions, photos, and other important information about the summit.
POTA Map - Will show SOTA summits, if the feature is turned on using the layers option in the top right corner. The search bar will not find summits.
SOTA Watch - SOTA Spotting and Alerting page.
SOTA Maps - detailed maps with creatable and downloadable waypoint files.
SOTA FAQ Page
SOTA Forums
SOTA Homepage - with links to upload .adif files, reference manuals, your logs page, etc.an interactive map website that shows Summits on the Air (SOTA) mountain peaks along with activations, alerts, and radio spots from
POTA and SOTA Logging Software
HAMRS – Very popular portable logger for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux. It has templates specifically for POTA and exports logs directly in ADIF format for POTA uploads.
Ham2K Portable Logger (PoLo) – A newer mobile logger designed specifically for portable operations like POTA and SOTA. It can self-spot to the POTA spotting system, detect parks using GPS, and export logs ready for POTA upload. Runs on Android and iOS and works well on phones and tablets used in the field. Many activators like it because everything (logging, spotting, park lookup) is in one interface, making pile-ups easier to manage.
N3FJP ACLog (Amateur Contact Log) – A widely recommended Windows logging program with a POTA template and good integration with other ham radio software. ACLog will integrate with Digirig and WSJT-X to seamlessly log FT-8 contacts. It also has the ability to download a file of all callsigns so callsign lookup works even when offline.
World Radio League (WRL) - Interesting offering that has apps for Android, IOS, or works from a browser on a computer. Your logs are stored in the cloud but claims to be able to work offline as well. Featured advertised are GPS-based park lookup, logging of park-to-park contacts (even when offline), view nearby parks, summits, and WWFF sites, built in auto-spotting to pota.app, view real-time POTA spots, simple ADIF exporting, and automatic syncing across all your devices. Claims CAT control of your radio from your desktop computer.
By Device:
Phone/tablet: Ham2K PoLo, HAMRS, or WRL
Laptop: HAMRS, N3FJP ACLog, or WRL
For Hunters:
POTACAT is a Parks on the Air (and DXpedition) hunting and logging application designed to make chasing activators fast and automatic. It integrates with your radio using CAT control so you can click a spot and instantly tune your radio and log the contact. POTACAT claims to be able to forward completed QSO’s directly to HRD Logbook.
Using POTACAT with Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) - as of this writing, POTACAT will not talk directly to Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD), the way WSJT-X does, by selecting HRD as the radio. However, I did get POTACAT to talk to HRD using HRD Rig Control’s 3rd-Party Serial port function (located under Tool-Hardware 3rd-Party Serial Port). Using this requires a serial port emulator program to expose the serial port. I use Virtual Serial Port Emulator (VSPE).
In my setup, I used HRD’s 3rd-Party Serial Port to create a com port 12 (This happened to be the next unused com port number, as my Yaesu radio picked up com ports 10 and 11). I then used VSPE to pair port 12 to port 13. Then, in POTACAT, I chose the Serial CAT (Kenwood) option and pointed it to com port 13. The 3rd-Party Serial Port emulates a Kenwood radio so, even though I have a Yaesu radio, I tell the software I have a Kenwood.
An added advantage to setting up the 3rd-Party Serial Port in HRD is that you can point other programs to the port that is created. So, for example, when I run WinLink or VarAC, I point them to the com port 13 and tell them I have a Kenwood radio.
ARC POTA Activities
POTA (Parks on the Air) is a good way to test your ability to deploy your personal station in an emergency. It is also a good way to enjoy some quality time with other amateur operators.
ARC tries to participate as a club in these yearly POTA activities:
Winter Support Your Parks, 3rd Full Weekend of January.
These are ‘activity weekends’ where the main purpose is to get out in the parks, and have as much fun as possible.
Winter Field Day at Watson Mill Bridge State Park.
Although Winter Field Day itself is not a POTA event, we hold this event at Watson Mill State Park and make it a POTA event as well.
Georgia State Parks on the Air, the third weekend in April.
The objective of this contest is to enlist enough individual hams, clubs, and ARES groups to fan out across the state and activate all 52 GA State Parks. The emphasis is to activate only GA State Parks.
Fall Support Your Parks Weekend, 3rd Full Weekend of October.
These are ‘activity weekends’ where the main purpose is to get out in the parks, and have as much fun as possible.
Clubs compete for highest number of contacts from any GA parks, not just State Parks, All activators use the club call sign.
W4H Wicked Four Halloween at Hard Labor Creek State Park.
ARC uses a special event call sign and activates Hard Labor Creek State Park.
Check the ARC home page and the ARC Groups.io email and also listen to the ARC 145.330 repeater for other POTA events poping up.
Athens Radio Club - KD4QHB - POTA Profile
The ARC POTA Poker Sprint Sites- May 4, 2024
Bob KE4JLL & Bill KQ4PGV at US-2205