This month's field event will be a "Parks on the Air" (POTA) activation of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (park K-0662) on Saturday, October 30, from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm. The activities will occur at the "Johnson Ferry South" Unit of the Chattahoochee River NRA.
If you want directions click this link: https://goo.gl/maps/o4DV6C2gJtMMG3kf7.
If you're not familiar with POTA, ham radio operators set up in state and federal parks and operate in a fashion that provides emergency operation awareness and communications skills. But more than that, POTA provides a challenge to get on the air and make contacts. To encourage folks to do just that, there are a slew of awards, both for "activators" (hams who set up the stations in the parks) and the "hunters" (hams who make contact with them). Awards start with as few as 10 contacts, so everyone can jump in and start earning awards right away. On any given day, there are literally dozens of hams on the air, and "chasing" them is a ton of fun. During a recent activation, sitting along a river in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Skip Kazmarek, K4EAK, our ARC VP, made 71 contacts in 80 minutes, often with half a dozen stations all calling at once! To get a sense of all of the POTA activities occurring at any given time, check out the POTA spotting page here: https://pota.app/#/. (There are 25 different POTA spots on that page as this page is being written)
The club will operate as a club activation, and we'll have radios and antennas set up to operate on several bands at once. And there's an added benefit: because we'll be using the club call sign, each person who takes a turn will log contacts as "operator" and both the club and the operator will get credit for all contacts. That means, if you're already a POTA activator, you can add a new park and rack of contacts. If you've never done POTA before, there's a good chance that you''ll win an award during your first try. We'll also have some stations set up for digital contacts, providing a double benefit: play around with POTA and wade into the digital world. For those without HF privileges, we'll have operators there under whose call signs you can operate. Everyone who wants to get on the air will get on the air. This is a perfect opportunity for new hams to explore HF operations.
And, of course, we'll have food and drinks and general conversations and good times. Everyone is invited and feel free to invite your friends, ham wannabe's, spouses, kids, dogs, whoever. Feel free to post questions or comments on the comments page or email them here or post them on our Facebook page. We'll put a similar announcement on the club Facebook page. Hoping to see you all
Please note that there is a parking fee for cars at the site. You can buy a day pass for $5 online or at the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area Visitor's center at:
Island Ford Visitor Center
8800 Roberts Drive
Sandy Springs, Georgia 30350
Other passes are also available. The first two get you into the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area only and the rest are valid at all the national parks and federal recreation lands administered by the National Park Service and 5 other government agencies.
If you're not familiar with POTA, ham radio operators set up in state and federal parks and operate in a fashion that provides emergency operation awareness and communications skills. But more than that, POTA provides a challenge to get on the air and make contacts. To encourage folks to do just that, there are a slew of awards, both for "activators" (hams who set up the stations in the parks) and the "hunters" (hams who make contact with them). Awards start with as few as 10 contacts, so everyone can jump in and start earning awards right away. On any given day, there are literally dozens of hams on the air, and "chasing" them is a ton of fun. During a recent activation, sitting along a river in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Skip Kazmarek, K4EAK, our ARC VP, made 71 contacts in 80 minutes, often with half a dozen stations all calling at once! To get a sense of all of the POTA activities occurring at any given time, check out the POTA spotting page here: https://pota.app/#/. (There are 25 different POTA spots on that page as this page is being written)
The club will operate as a club activation, and we'll have radios and antennas set up to operate on several bands at once. And there's an added benefit: because we'll be using the club call sign, each person who takes a turn will log contacts as "operator" and both the club and the operator will get credit for all contacts. That means, if you're already a POTA activator, you can add a new park and rack of contacts. If you've never done POTA before, there's a good chance that you''ll win an award during your first try. We'll also have some stations set up for digital contacts, providing a double benefit: play around with POTA and wade into the digital world. For those without HF privileges, we'll have operators there under whose call signs you can operate. Everyone who wants to get on the air will get on the air. This is a perfect opportunity for new hams to explore HF operations.
And, of course, we'll have food and drinks and general conversations and good times. Everyone is invited and feel free to invite your friends, ham wannabe's, spouses, kids, dogs, whoever. Feel free to post questions or comments on the comments page or email them here or post them on our Facebook page. We'll put a similar announcement on the club Facebook page. Hoping to see you all
Please note that there is a parking fee for cars at the site. You can buy a day pass for $5 online or at the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area Visitor's center at:
Island Ford Visitor Center
8800 Roberts Drive
Sandy Springs, Georgia 30350
Other passes are also available. The first two get you into the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area only and the rest are valid at all the national parks and federal recreation lands administered by the National Park Service and 5 other government agencies.
Chattahoochee National Recreation Area only |
|
|
Day Pass |
$5 |
https://www.recreation.gov/sitepass/2626 |
Annual Pass |
$40 |
https://www.recreation.gov/sitepass/2626 |
All National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands (America The Beautiful Pass) |
||
Annual Pass |
$80 |
https://store.usgs.gov/recreational-passes |
Annual Pass (Senior) |
$20 |
https://store.usgs.gov/recreational-passes |
LIfetime Pass (Senior) |
$80 |
https://store.usgs.gov/recreational-passes |
Lifetime Pass (Access/Disabled) |
FREE |
https://store.usgs.gov/recreational-passes |
Annual Pass (Military) |
FREE |
https://store.usgs.gov/recreational-passes |
Annual Pass (4th Grade) |
FREE |
in-person only |
Annual Pass (Volunteer) |
FREE |
in-person only |