The Explosive Growth of Parks On The Air: Meet the Founder W3AAX

I’m a dual activator …. SInce mid-2020 I’ve made somewhere around 12000 POTA/WWFF contacts, 9500 as activator. 100% CW. I’m not as active in the colder months. I enjoy both programs, for the most part. I can always tell when W6LEN posts me on the WWFF cluster … the European DX rolls in … hot and fast … love it!

All levels of experience and interests are embraced. New hams should take advantage of the experience of the seasoned operators and experienced ops should see an opportunity to lead by example.

FWIW, my enjoyment of POTA in inversely proportionate to my participation on certain social media platforms …

 

Always a pleasure to get you in my log. However the biggest kick that I get when I pour myself a fresh cup of hot coffee, sit back and listen to the European WWFF park hunters come a'callin. Gotta love it

 

Same here …. On one good morning I worked France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Ukraine, Poland, Norway, Spain, Portugal … on 50W CW to ham sticks. BEFORE the bands came alive in the past few weeks. For you POTA peeps, if you aren’t participating in WWFF you are missing out on meeting some great CW ops, and putting some countries in your logs.

 

I think that’s a can of worms W3AAX would rather not open in a forum that is not censored.

 

Love the POTA program! At the very essence of Amateur Radio is emergency preparedness and public service and while we all recognize the importance and function of Field Day (that happens only once a year), the POTA Activators are out there EVERY DAY, setting it all up and tearing it all down, sometimes over a lunch hour. There is no other group or organization as prepared as these folks to step up to the plate in case of National Disaster or Global Crisis. Thank you! The French Resistance had nothing on you guys!
That said, there are a handful of Activators who really do need to read their Part 97! They all say they have, but they are obviously going on what someone else TOLD them it says. You need to ID your station at the end of EVERY contact in plain English (Phonetics encouraged), AND at intervals of no longer than 10 Minutes IF the contact should last that long. Face it, putting your call sign out there more often will only speed the communication process over all and in the end, get you MORE contacts.
Whether you realize it or not, you are preparing to be on the front lines of communication in a disaster. Let's do it right so that when (not if) we need you, you will be effective!
(Just ID...)

 

Really enjoy my periodic sojourns on POTA. My first park activation was the first activation of Posey Island in the Washington San Juan Islands....just a couple of acres in size. Several more yet to be activated up there. Great fun when out on the boat! Much appreciation for getting this off the ground!

 

I didn't know about the other park program. But I did wonder about some of the wording in the Code of Conduct:

Registered Parks on the Air participants will not:

1. Exhibit behavior that discredits the integrity of the Parks on the Program or themselves.
2. Threaten or abuse members of the administration team, volunteers, or other participants in any manner.
3. Make posts or comments on any POTA site, forum, or social media account that are:
   • Discourteous
   • Offensive
   • Arguing in bad faith
   • Infringing others’ copyright
   • Containing advertisements of products or services not under license with Parks on the Air
   • Containing information about other portable park operation programs

 

I realized that once I signed up and had all kinds of contacts in WWFF already. The same happens with some SOTA folks too. I worked a few operators on a summit that mentioned they were also in a park, so you get double the fun for your effort. Often, they're spotted in one program and not the other, so I'll go ahead spot them in the other if they want me to.

 

Though I have a few POTA parks nearby, nearly all of my portable and mobile activity is outside of POTA parks. I usually chase POTA, SOTA etc. from any location I choose instead as part of my portable activity. I still get credit as hunter/chaser instead and I operate where I want.

 

Thanks Claude - good point. I enjoy hunting, and have at times set up portable operations in my backyard (the desert). Fun! I love to activate, and we have so few parks in this area that are certified POTA. Incidentally, I went to your QRZ profile to send you a web log message and your web log is not set up. I sometimes find that feature interesting. Regards, Dave

 

Kevin,

Did you know that every one of your POTA .adif logs that cross-reference a WWFF-KFF or WWFF-VEFF location could be submitted for upload? There are over 144 in Maine - So I'm guessing you've activated a few. Just make that
each log adheres to a classic filename syntax like [CALL@K-####-yyyymmdd] and send me an email for more information - n3kae@arrl.net. You could even download and install mParks Converter to convert the files to WWFF format before they are emailed.

This way you too could begin to support two outstanding park programs and start another wallpaper collection should you decide to create an account with WWFF.CO.



Yours in Dual-Activating,

Al Zelna, N3KAE

 

Thanks Dave, well I don't know much about the web log function, but maybe I should have a look into it. Enjoy your portable activity!

 

We have no such restrictions within the WWFF / KFF activity. In fact you will often find a reference to the POTA activity within posts on the KFF FB page.

 

The reason me and multiple other EU's were kicked out from POTA ...

 

That’s a fact!
So many good op’s have been kicked out POTA for mentioning the WWFF reference when activating.