I think many, MANY POTA activators are assuming that everyone is connected to the internet, all the time. They complain about not being able to spot themselves on the POTA site (pota.us) when they go out and activate a park. Maybe they're the ones that never give their park number on the air. I don't have a "smart phone" and the two places I frequently activate don't have cell coverage anyway. Hey, it's ham radio I give my park number with EVERY CQ on CW or SSB, why not, it only takes a few seconds to send on CW at 25 wpm or say on SSB. To me it seems rude to be on the air at a park and not give your park number to hunters at least every few QSOs... If you're gonna call CQ and say you're at a park, you better say the park number somewhere... What a lot of POTA people don't realize is that the Park-to-Park credit is different for the WWFF organization. You have to list the park number of both stations in your log to get credit for P2P contacts in WWFF. With Parks On The Air it just happens automatically when the database system matches up all the logs, you don't need to claim any parks worked. Obviously most of the POTA members don't know about this. You have to work a little harder to get some of the awards in WWFF. POTA makes it really easy... Glenn AE0Q
A very bad assumption giving the remoteness of many POTA sites. Also it does not take into account portable hunters like myself who may be in remote areas.
New POTA Activator here. Recently activated GW-0006 and am able to activate many more. One problem I see is that as an Amateur Radio op, I want to work more than just POTA whilst out and calling the POTA ref with EVERY call will confuse other callers. Myself and Ron G4DIY work portable from our cars, we use exterior generators so can run legal UK power to 1/4 lambda verticals over 120 radials, sometimes we will be over saltwater too. We get some decent pile ups and the other stations may not be POTA. Here's a link to show what I mean about our set ups.. This was GW-0006 Halkyn Moutain/Clwydian Ranges on the 29th October, we don't have much chance to mention POTA at times.
