The W2CRA club will host the next POTA event for activators on Saturday, September 14 from 9 am to 12 pm at the Washington Crossing State Park, NJ side of the Delaware River. 

 

This park is located just before the steel bridge going west over the Delaware River.  If you go west on the Washington Crossing Pennington Rd (aka Route 546), proceed past the River Rd crossing light, cross over the wooden Delaware and Raritan Canal bridge and turn right onto River Drive (head north).  Almost immediately turn right into the parking lot, continue around the narrow lot (U shape), and proceed into the second lot where you should park.

 

Plan to bring an antenna, table, chair, your radio station, battery power, a UTC clock, log book (or laptop), cold beverage, shade (cap). 

 

If you don't have a portable radio station, just bring a chair, your logbook, beverage and ask to work with another activator as a second operator.

 

Depending on RF conditions, we will operate on any (or all bands) not being used by another activator in the park.  So please communicate with other operators to know the bands they are on and not cause interference.

 

If you are new to Parks On the Air (POTA) activation, please set up your account ahead of time on the ParksOnTheAir.com account.  It is Free! 

 

When you are at the park, go online with your phone (or laptop), login into your Parks on the Air account, and display the Active Spots.  

 

Select the Band (like 20M), the Mode (like SSB, CW, Digital) and sort the active stations by Frequency.  You might try hunting other POTA stations by responding to their CQs with your callsign and say "park to park."  This will give you a qso and let you know your station is properly set up and can transmit / receive.

 

When you are ready to spot yourself, find an open frequency.  After declaring "is this frequency in use?" and finding it available, scroll to the bottom of the band display screen "At a park now?"  Tap the + sign.  Enter your frequency in kHz, your park reference (US-1634 for Washington Crossing State Park), and in Comments the word "Start."  Tap the green SPOT sign and within a minute your spot should display to other hunters that you are ready to activate to park.

 

Announce "CQ POTA, CQ POTA, 'your call sign', I'm listening."  You don't need to announce your park reference number.  After 5 seconds, if no one responds, repeat your CQ.

 

If a hunter requests your park reference, it will be US-1634, combined with US-1613 (Delaware & Raritan Canal) and US-0684 (Lower Delaware National Wild and Scenic River)....  aka a 3-fer. If they don't ask, no problem, just say '73' and give another CQ call.

 

A couple more points:  1:) You need at least 10 qsos to activate the park.  I go for 12-15 qsos to be on the safe side.  2)  When you are done activating, Re-spot your station with "QRT" in the Comment line.   

 

Please let me emphasize this final point, as an activator it is your responsibility to properly enter your qso contacts into the POTA database, either during or after the event.  Hunters do not earn credits and Activators do not earn credits until you've completed this data entry.  If you need help, please call me (908-892-3016) or another POTA activator to get help.

 

POTA On!