Hats off to Brian K1BS, Brian N1NW, and Rob N1RWJ and the crew of the RIOPTA.org and the groups.io RI-POTA group. These three fine gentlemen put together a fabulous 3 day long event and successfully put all 61 Rhode Island Parks on the air with the help of 41 activators – 11 of them from NCRC.
By the way, the activators had 5,449 QSOs during the event.
Check out the Rob’s fantastic website to drill down into the details! https://ripota.org/activate-ri-2026/
RI is blessed with having 61 beautiful parks, all within less than an hour drive. Beyond the active group of Parks On The Air (POTA) folks within the club, there are a large number of very active activators in the state of RI. Check out www.ripota.org
On September 11 through 13, activators will be spreading out all over the state attempting to activate EVERY RI park.
The Technician license has been the entry level for most hams. Many of whom think it is a VHF and above license. Those that do are missing out on the fact that they have digital privileges on the 10-meter band from 28.000 to 28.300 MHz. That includes the very popular FT-8 frequency of 28.074 MHz.
Ten meters isn’t always open, but during the peak of the solar cycle (where we are right now), it is often open many of the daylight hours. Sometimes, global DX is available 24×7 – it all depends on solar activity.
Given the popularity of FT-8, that might be an excellent way to get HF experience, along with Digital and DX excitement. Especially using FT-8, Parks On The Air (POTA) can be more productive than voice.
This snapshot showing HF privileges for Technicians is from the ARRL:
The software is free and it is pretty straightforward to set up modern radio gear, like the IC-7300. Check out https://wsjt.sourceforge.io/wsjtx.html
Every day hundreds (thousands?) of US and international Amateur Radio stations bring their gear to parks all over the globe. They set up portable stations in the parks, and try to make as many contacts as possible. The operators in the parks are called “Activators”, and other people contacting them are called “Hunters”. Activators and Hunters make up what is called the Parks On The Air (POTA) program.
On Sunday June 8, from 10am until 2pm, Newport County Radio Club will be holding a demonstration of a High Frequency (HF) POTA activation at Fort Adams State Park (park number US-2874). Our activities will be located in the parking area behind and to the right of the Eisenhower House (Northwest). Upon entering the park, turn left at Lincoln Drive, and follow it past the Eisenhower House. Enter the parking area that faces the East Passage of the bay – see the area circled on the map below.
By attending this event, you can see several stations engaged in a POTA Activation, and understand the equipment and antennas used – a great way to understand what you will require for your own portable operations. At least one voice and one digital station will be on the air. You do not need to sign up for anything, but you can make contacts for yourself, if you like. (By the way, this is an excellent way to get some on-air experience for Field Day.)
An activation can be as simple or complex as you desire – talk to a few or hundreds of stations. Run 1 watt QRP, 100 watts, or more. And of course all modes are possible. There are handy on-line tools available to help you find where the parks are and who is on the air, plus a very expansive awards program to help encourage your POTA activities.
POTA is a wonderful way to combine your love of Amateur Radio with fresh air outdoors and beautiful sea views for us lucky Rhode Islanders. We hope to see you there on Sunday June 8th from 10am until 2pm.
The POTA program has been in the process of changing all park prefixes from their original format to a new format that follows the ISO standard for naming entities. On March 20, 2024, parks in the US will change from being listed as “K-xxxxx” to “US-xxxxx” (the K changes to US).
Changes for other countries have either already taken place or will take place soon. For example, The Bahamas used to begin with C6, and is now BS.
Keep in mind that there never has been a requirement to transmit your park information, not even if you are doing a park-to-park contact. All of that is automatically handled when logs are uploaded. But you will certainly see these changes on the POTA spotting network, and will likely hear them on the air soon. Just remember to send “US” starting March 20th!!!
See this URL for information: https://docs.