Everything you need to know about POTA, Starting Guide

Somewhere in the string of three dozen "CQ parks on the air" please put your call sign in. Come up for air on between once in a while. See if you have stomped over top of someone or if someone wants to respond. Hard to tell if you are keyed down for over a minute?

 

Just as courtesy if I start transmitting on a net freq. and someone calls and says a net is starting in 10 minutes.....I will move, no problem but I get it.

 

I try to do that.

 

Your point is valid and correct. Well, then I also have comment about hunters. When the say "I know you gave your call and park # a bunch of times, but can you give it to me again." I intend to give call sign and park number after EVERY QSO! The only time I don't is when I'm finishing with a caller and then another caller(or callers) calls out before I have a chance to give call sign and park. I don't mind giving call and park again but whatever happened to....Listen, listen and listen some more before transmitting.

 

Is the lack of callsigns and park info really a problem? I can't say I've ever heard an activator not providing that at least every couple QSOs (and that was when dealing with a pileup). I make an effort to put out my callsign and location info often, but even folks that aren't as obsessive as myself do it plenty often for me to understand who they are and where they're operating from. And, if not, it takes no effort to ask.

Sounds like tempest in a teapot to me.

Chris

 

Why would you throw out your call to a station if you did not know who you were attempting to contact? Just asking... Listen, listen, listen was beat in to my head as a new operator.

 

Some ops don't ID every 10 minutes so I have to ask.

 

Frank, It is your activation. You run it the way you want to run it within the parameters of acceptable operating practices and don't worry about what some Geritol Tom complains about. #POTAon

 

This has become a deeply silly thread but in related news, someone timed T22T at over 20 minutes between IDs last night on 10m CW.
DX operations have always gone far longer between IDs than POTA activators, very few of whom seem not to ID frequently enough in my experience.

 

What at the big station, I sit back in my recliner and smoke cigars and take it easy, always getting the operator's ID before I even call out to them. Before I even make the contact, I have the frequency and call sign written down to finish the log. So, when you sit and are ready to take that call sign and try to fight the pile up, and you sit and wait for 10 minutes and watch the clock, you do realize some of these guys are only giving their ID sometimes at 10 minute stretches. Even then, some operators seem bothered when people ask, and many seem to think it is a nuisance and attempt to run through their callsign as fast and sloppy as possible, so you still can't get it.

It isn't one POTA operator, or just one or two, it has been more than a few. I don't now why, but it is. To the point that anyone who has tried to hunt casually will even notice it.

 

Agreed. On a daily basis I hear cw ops call CQ SK, MST and quite a few others call CQ on top of a POTA operator that had been occupying a frequency for half an hour or more. Seemingly without waiting to listen if that frequency is actually in use. POTA has brought a lot of new ops out of the woodwork in recent years. Myself included. As a side note I can only express my opinion on the nasty habit of smoking. Smoking is bad for your health. duh.... And it is annoying to others that like to breathe clean air. There is nothing cool about smoking. Period.

 

How can you call someone if you dont know there call . Hay You

 

Hay you might work, but if you use a descriptor it may help.

 

I listen to the activators and I listen to them giving the park umber or callsign and once i have all that info then and only then do i key up and make contact.....I was always taught to LISTEN,LISTEN,LISTEN.

Sometimes ill bring up the POTA website to see what frequency they are on and then i will copy the callsign and park number.........nothing is perfect in amateur radio, nothing is perfect. But there will always be the nay sayers and haters out there who feel life is not complete unless they are complaining about something.

one thing is for certain , if you do not like what you hear ...turn the damn radio off and go back to watching porn

 

por que no los dos?

Chris