[bars] Bars group POTA Parks on the Air
Christopher Lennon
kwaj.speedo at gmail.com
Fri Oct 10 08:52:59 CDT 2025
Hey Adam,
Wanting to get the "I assume" out of my statement, and curious about how a
park becomes a POTA park I contacted Pete Knapp KN8PPY. He is the Map
Representative for Massachusetts. Nice guy and he got right back to me and
answered the question. I have pasted his full response below. Key is that
my assumption was wrong. The POTA organization does not contact any state
or federal officials. They verify that the parks meet certain criteria and
then put it on the list.
I am a little surprised, I always thought that at some level the local
officials knew about POTA. For heavily activated parks I am sure they
do, but it might be a surprise at the more lightly traveled parks.
If you are interested in adding a state or federal park to the list then in
MA Pete is the person you would contact.
Chris
W2BPL
Pete's reply follows....
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Hi Chris,
Thanks for reaching out, it is a very common question, however according to
the Rules https://docs.pota.app/docs/rules.html only State and Federal
entities are eligible for POTA.
Qualification of Parks, Trails, and Rivers for Addition to Parks on the Air
1. All new parks must be owned and operated by a State/Provincial or
Federal/National agency. We do not include parks that have part/shared
ownership, sponsorship, or are operated by private organizations or local
governments
2. To be considered for inclusion, the park must meet the above
requirements and offer an informational website detailing current boundary
maps.
3. POTA does not create sub-parks within existing parks if both parks
are owned and operated by the same State/Provincial or Federal/National
agency.
4. To request a park addition or edit, please refer to Park Additions
and Edits
If you happen to identify a potential park that meets these criteria, you
reach out to the State Mapping Representative with as much information as
you can so we can evaluate it and potentially add it to the database. An
easy qualifier is whether the park has a .gov website or not. We don't
interact with state or federal officials as they don't grant approval to
POTA as a non-profit volunteer organization.
Keep having fun with POTA, and we'll see you down the log!
73, Pete
KN8ppY
On Thu, Oct 9, 2025 at 10:08 PM Adam Smith <asmith at netspace.org> wrote:
> 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
>>>>>>
>>>>>> when hear YL on FREQ: they take precedence! Take YL QSO first
>>>>>>
>>>>>> check out: KA1ULN.BLOGSPOT.COM
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
> --
> "Be well, do good work, and keep in touch." -Garrison Keillor
>
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