Parks on the Air (POTA)
Parks on the Air brings the outdoors and ham radio together. In Hamtrax, you can browse a catalog of 15,000+ parks, see who's activating right now, and log contacts -- all from the Activity tab.
[SCREENSHOT: POTA activity mode showing park pins on the 2D map with an activation detail popup]
Activating vs. Hunting
If you're new to POTA, here's the key distinction:
- Activator -- You travel to a qualifying park and operate your radio from there. You need at least 10 QSOs to count as a valid activation.
- Hunter -- You contact activators from home (or anywhere). Every confirmed contact with an activator earns you hunter credit.
Both sides earn awards and contribute to the program. Hamtrax supports both workflows.
Active vs. Catalog Mode
The POTA view has two dataset modes, toggled at the top of the tab:
- Active -- Shows live spots from activators currently on the air. This is the default.
- Catalog -- Shows all park locations in the database. Useful for scouting parks in a region even when nobody is activating.
Browsing the Park Catalog
- Open the Activity tab and select Parks on the Air from the activity mode dropdown.
- Switch to Catalog mode to see all park locations, or stay in Active mode to see only parks with live spots.
- The map populates with park locations shown as pins. Zoom into a region to see individual parks.
- Tap any park pin to open the Park Detail modal.
The Park Detail modal shows:
- Park reference (e.g.,
K-0001) and park name - Location image (when available)
- Coordinates, distance and bearing from your location, and local time at the park
- Stats: total activations, attempts, and QSOs at that park
- Your activation count at the park (if any)
- Recent activation history (collapsible list of the last 20 activations with callsigns, dates, and QSO counts)
- Activate Here button to start an activation at that park
- Google Images link to see photos of the park
Use the search bar to find a specific park by its reference code or name. Typing K-0001 or Pottawatomie will match the right park.
Finding Live Activations
In Active mode, spots appear as highlighted pins on the map. Each spot shows:
- Activator callsign and their frequency
- Band and mode (e.g.,
20m,CW) - Park reference and park name
- Time since the spot was posted, with a freshness indicator (green for recent, yellow for aging, red for stale)
Tap a live activation to open the activation detail modal. This shows:
- Hero image of the park
- Frequency, mode, and power (parsed from spot comments)
- Activator callsign with avatar (tap to view their profile)
- Park name and reference (tap to view park details)
- Distance and bearing from your location
- Spotter map showing where other stations that spotted this activator are located (toggle between map and list view using the icon buttons)
- Contacted button to log a QSO in one tap
- Tried button to mark an attempted contact you couldn't complete
- Retry button to mark the activator for follow-up so you can come back to them later
- Spot to POTA.app checkbox (on by default) that submits a hunter spot confirming you worked the activator
After tapping Contacted, Tried, or Retry, the action buttons are replaced by a status badge showing the current state. A small undo button on the badge lets you revert the action if you change your mind.
Filtering POTA Spots
Tap the Filter button to narrow the spot feed:
- Band -- Show only activations on specific bands (e.g.,
40m,20m) - Mode -- Filter by
CW,SSB,FT8, or other modes - Callsign -- Filter by activator callsign
- Park -- Filter by park name or reference code
In Catalog mode, two additional filters appear:
- Popular -- Show only the most-activated parks (temporarily unavailable while we optimize data loading)
- Historical -- Show only parks with "historical" or "history" in the name
POTA spots refresh every few minutes. If an activator just posted a spot and you don't see it yet, give it a moment.
Starting an Activation
Ready to go portable? Hamtrax walks you through setup and handles the bookkeeping while you operate.
- Open the Activity tab, select Parks on the Air, and tap Activate.
- GPS auto-detect -- Hamtrax requests your device location and suggests the nearest park automatically. You can accept the suggestion or search for a different park.
- You can also tap any park pin on the map to select it -- park pins remain interactive during setup and open the Park Detail modal with an Activate Here button.
- Choose your frequency, mode, power, and equipment profile (radio and antenna from your Rig Manager profiles), then tap Start.
Once running, all contacts you log are saved to an auto-created folder named after your activation (e.g., "POTA K-0817 -- Pisgah National Forest"). You don't need to create or manage this folder -- it happens automatically.
The Auto-spot when activation starts checkbox (enabled by default) posts a spot to POTA.app as soon as your activation begins, so hunters can find you right away. The spot comment is auto-generated from your callsign, radio, and antenna profiles.
Logging Contacts During an Activation
Once your activation is running, the QSO log form appears on the map panel. For each contact, enter:
- Callsign -- Auto-looked up against POTA spots and callsign databases
- Frequency and mode -- Pre-filled from your activation settings; mode auto-updates when you change frequency
- Signal reports (sent and received) -- Picker defaults to 59
- Equipment -- Radio and antenna selection (from your Rig Manager profiles)
- Notes -- Optional, toggled with a checkbox
Park-to-Park Detection
When you enter a callsign, Hamtrax checks cached POTA spots from the last 30 minutes. If the other station is also at a park, the P2P (Park to Park) indicator appears automatically and their park reference fills in. This data is included in the ADIF export.
Respot on Frequency Change
If you change frequency during your activation, a Respot checkbox appears on the next QSO you log. Checking it updates your POTA.app spot with your new frequency.
Logging a Hunt Contact
When you tap an active spot in the list or on the map, the activation detail modal opens with a Contacted button. Tapping it creates a QSO record with the activator's callsign, frequency, band, mode, and park reference pre-filled -- no separate form needed.
If the Spot to POTA.app checkbox is checked (on by default), a hunter spot is also submitted to POTA.app confirming you worked the activator.
If you attempted a contact but couldn't complete it, tap Tried to record the attempt, or tap Retry to flag the activator to come back to later. Once you tap any action, the modal shows a status badge -- tap the undo button on the badge to revert.
Editing Activation Contacts
After an activation, you can edit or delete individual contacts from the Logbook page just like any other contact. However, because activation contacts are tied to your POTA submission, Hamtrax shows a warning dialog before you edit one. The warning reminds you that edits made in Hamtrax are not automatically synced to the POTA website -- you must also update your log on pota.app manually to keep both records in sync.
If you prefer not to see this warning every time, check "Hide this message in the future" in the dialog. You can re-enable it later from Settings > Preferences > Activity.
Ending an Activation
When you're done operating, tap End Activation. Hamtrax finalizes the activation record and you can download an ADIF file of all logged contacts, formatted for upload to POTA.app or any logging software.
Importing a Past Activation
If you have ADIF files from activations you did before using Hamtrax, you can import them as complete activation records. In the Logbook tab, click the + button on the Activations folder, then choose Import Activation. Hamtrax parses the ADIF file, auto-detects the park reference, callsign, and date range, and creates the activation record, folder, and QSOs in one step. See Importing a Past Activation for full details.