[bars] Bars group POTA Parks on the Air

Thu Oct 9 21:07:47 CDT 2025

Hi Chris - re: your statement, "I assume that this means that they interact
with state and federal officials to get a certain level of permission for
parks in that state" - I'm also not a POTA organizer, but I have never seen
anything that suggests the POTA program has an official interaction with
any National or State governing authority.  They clearly state in the rules
that access to the parks must be available to the public, that the
activator is responsible for validating the park boundaries and governance,
and that you should comply with published policies and any direction from
rangers/staff.

So my understanding is that POTA Activators are just park users, like
anyone else.  The program hasn't arranged any permission on our behalf.
Like many activities, it's on the honor system when we submit our
activations - but when you do so you're asked to verify each time that
you've followed the program rules.

That said, as you mentioned, there are a wide variety of POTA locations in
our area (certainly more so than SOTA, for example).  The rules may be
arbitrary, but they're what creates the "game".  Go have fun and I hope to
meet you (or work you) in a park soon!

73,
Adam / AA1N

PS - there is a very active POTA Discord server which has a lot of
knowledgeable activators as well as some of the volunteers involved in the
program, if you want to go to the horse's mouth for validation.  I have
also had very fast and helpful responses to a "support ticket" email when I
made a mistake regarding a submitted log.

On Wed, Oct 8, 2025 at 12:11 PM Christopher Lennon via bars <bars at w1hh.org>
wrote:

> Not being one of the PoTA organizers I can not definitively answer your
> question.  I do have a suspicion.  There are people in the PoTA
> organization that are state coordinators.  I assume that this means that
> they interact with state and federal officials to get a certain level of
> permission for parks in that state.  There is something to this because not
> all state or federal parks in a state are on the PoTA list.  As an
> activator it is somewhat comforting because a park being on the list
> implies some of level of permission.  Being just state and federal parks
> vastly limits the number of officials these coordinators need to interact
> with.  So, I suspect that is simply a matter of work load for VOLUNTEER
> coordinators.
>
> In Mass it is hardly a problem.  There are lots of available parks.  Check
> the map.
>
> Chris
> W2BPL
>
>
> Sent from my phone.
>
> On Wed, Oct 8, 2025, 11:36 AM Juan Jiménez <k1cpr at bd5.com> wrote:
>
>> Why are local parks not allowed for activations? Seems like a severely
>> shortsighted rule, considering all the great parks that are owned and run
>> by local authorities and are always looking for more ways to engage with
>> residents.
>>
>> 73,
>> K1CPR
>> Juan
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 8, 2025 at 11:20 AM Christopher Lennon <kwaj.speedo at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Sadly, local parks are not PoTA parks.  You can go there and operate,
>>> but you don't get credit for an activation in the PoTA universe.  PoTA
>>> parks in the US are either state or federal.  Not all state and federal
>>> parks are on the PoTA list.
>>>
>>> https://pota.app/#/map
>>>
>>> Will take you to the map of PoTA sites
>>>
>>> Chris
>>> W2BPL
>>>
>>>
>>> Sent from my phone.
>>>
>>> On Wed, Oct 8, 2025, 10:26 AM Leandra MacLennan via bars <bars at w1hh.org>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Unfortunately only state and national parks are eligible to be “POTA”
>>>> parks. The official POTA parks are shown on the map on the POTA website.
>>>>
>>>> A gathering at Simonds could be a good dry run for an activation of a
>>>> POTA park on another day.
>>>>
>>>> -Leandra AF1R
>>>>
>>>> On Oct 8, 2025, at 9:57 AM, Juan Jiménez via bars <bars at w1hh.org>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> 
>>>> I just asked Brendan Egan at Burlington.org, head of Parks and
>>>> Recreation, to see if they would allow us to activate Simonds Park.
>>>>
>>>> 73,
>>>> K1CPR
>>>> Juan
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Oct 6, 2025 at 10:31 PM ham operator via bars <bars at w1hh.org>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> hello Bars
>>>>>
>>>>> time to start group POTAS
>>>>>
>>>>> for all pota  info www.parksontheair.com
>>>>>
>>>>> lets make a few plans:
>>>>> where is the closest parks to the meeting location:
>>>>> US-4742. - warren manning state forest
>>>>> US-2435  - great brook farm state park
>>>>> US-4735. - carisle state forest
>>>>>
>>>>> is anyone available to do potas on a weekday
>>>>> is 10 am good on weekday or weekend
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> the link above will help you understand what you need to bring to the
>>>>> pota site
>>>>>
>>>>> i am going to go check out warren manning
>>>>> and i will schedule a time and day
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>>     73  Niece
>>>>> Please  listen for  my   10m  CW  beacon   28.2235
>>>>>
>>>>> 20m  14.045    SLOW  CW  NET
>>>>> SUNDAY NIGHT  AT  4PM  EST  or  20:00 utc
>>>>> we use  netlogger.org
>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>> check out:  KA1ULN.BLOGSPOT.COM
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> bars mailing list
>>>>> bars at w1hh.org
>>>>> http://mail.w1hh.org/mailman/listinfo/bars_w1hh.org
>>>>>
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-- 
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