The CRA-II has approved our club for three POTA (Parks On The Air) events. The event dates are June10, July 8, and August 19 at the Washington Crossing State Park, NJ side, in Sullivan Grove near the Visitor Center/Museum. I have sent our special use application to the Park Superintendent along with the fee. The event times are from 9 am to 1 pm.

There are currently no entrance fees to the NJ state parks. CRA members, HAM operators, and the public are encouraged to attend. There are restrooms inside the Visitors Center.

I will ask CRA members planning to set up portable equipment at the event to inform me ahead of time with information about their transceiver, antenna, call sign. If Operators want to use their vehicle mobile equipment, that will be fine too. Currently, the vehicles will be restricted to the Visitor parking lot which is adjacent to the field.

Operators can use whatever modes they wish: CW, SSB, digital. All setups should be self contained, self powered (batteries please).

I plan to use a folding table, chair, and Bioenno 12V, 15 Ahr LiFePO4 battery. I have the ICOM IC-7300 100W transceiver. I will choose one of several antennae options: Wolf River Coil vertical, a Buddistick vertical, or possibly one of several wire types with an arbor type thrown line into the trees (Superintendent has already said we can use the trees provided we don't damage them!).

I will probably bring my QRP radio (ICOM IC-705 10W on Bioenno battery) for a second display and get it tuned up to another vertical antenna.

When I'm not using my HAM equipment, I will allow others to operate it (with care!) for POTA contacts.

Handheld transceivers on 2M, 70 cm can also be used for POTA operations, since we'll be within the Repeaters' range. However, I don't have alot of experience doing POTA on VHF, UHF.

If you want to learn more about Parks On The Air (POTA), go to https://parksontheair.com site. Registration is free. I also have the POTA app on my mobile phone.

While at a park, I can "see" other operators "spotted" around the country (and world) using different bands, modes. I sort the active spotters by band (usually 20M or 40M for me), the Mode (SSB) and by "frequency."

I can hunt them to make a contact on their frequency and give them my park number for a "Park to Park" QSO. Activators tend to prioritize pileups by taking P2P contacts first.

I use a paper notebook to log my contacts. Later back home, I'll use HAMRS logging software to electronically file the QSOs. I'll upload the HAMRS .adi file to my POTA account and to QRZ. Many people use LoTW, but I haven't gone that path.

BTW: The Washington Crossing POTA park number is K-1634. I plan to make myself available to help members get started with POTA and to the extent I can, I will answer questions. Bring your laptop and battery power!