getontheair.app

Dead cell / rover QRT

The pile does not care that your phone just became a brick. Hunters are still listening on the frequency you advertised. This page is the field card for that moment: what already failed, what you packed, how unofficial spot-via-HF/SMS tools fit as operator recipes, and how to QRT so the cluster is not a ghost.

It is independent. Not affiliated with Parks on the Air, SOTA, WWFF, SOTAMAT, APSPOT, or Apple. Those tools post (or try to post) into their spotting systems — they are not awards authorities and they do not replace pota.app / SOTAwatch rules. Confirm syntax on the linked official pages before you need them. We do not host a skimmer, a spot clone, or a “send this for me” service.

Last verified against public SOTAMAT / APSPOT / Apple pages: 2026-09-15.

What fails when cell dies

Usual phone-data path is gone:

Still works if you packed it:

France POTA: you should have confirmed Active on pota.app before you lost cell — POTA France — reference freshness. Do not trust a stale CSV in the glovebox.

Check before you leave

Do this at the kitchen table. The trailhead is too late.

Satellite messenger (inReach and similar) is a safety tool first. Spotting recipes below are not life-safety systems.

Operator recipes (not awards authority)

Unofficial helpers. They can fail, lag, or post to the wrong catalogue. Read the vendor page. Practice at home. TEST spots and test in the comment exist so you do not alert the world while learning.

Fallback with no extra gear: ask the first hunter to spot you on pota.app, ask again when it goes stale, stay on or next to the advertised frequency. That sentence already lives on Activate.

SOTAMAT

SOTAMAT (AB6D) encodes a pre-registered command into a short HF message (FT8 in the app is the usual path) so monitoring stations can report you to PSK Reporter and SOTAMAT can execute the command — self-spot, self-alert, or a predefined SMS/email you authored on the site. Two-way commands also exist over SMS, email, and Garmin inReach when those paths work.

This site does not document how to run a skimmer. If you want to help their network, that is their project, on their pages.

Kitchen-table prep (required): register with your callsign as username, set a PIN / SMS numbers on the profile, build the configuration (regions, parks, bands, predefined messages), then Load Configuration in the mobile app. The app is designed to work offline — it will not auto-sync a website change. Details: Preparation · Getting Started.

Apps (production listings we fetched 2026-09-15): iOS · Android.

In the field, no cell (1-way HF): pick the command in the app, play/send the FT8 (or other documented mode) a few times, wait. Their docs say PSK Reporter queueing is often the delay — on the order of minutes, not instant. Use Testing / K-TEST from their getting-started page when you are learning, not a live hunter pile.

2-way (SMS / email / inReach) — syntax lives on 2-Way Services. Public endpoints from that page:

POTA self-spot command family: potapostspot / psm. Their docs require punctuation in the park ID (K-0021 or K.0021, not K0021). Examples on that page include K-TEST for tests and a QRT special mode on the SOTA sotapostspot command (posts a QRT property so chasers stop listening). Changelog 2025-12-28: QRT and TEST modes were fixed for SOTA and POTA. Confirm the current POTA QRT spelling on their syntax page before you need it — do not invent a variant here.

Reference-format trap: SOTAMAT examples often show K-nnnn. pota.app’s public map uses ISO-style refs such as US-xxxx. Use the format their current docs require, and make sure it is the same park you confirmed on pota.app. Do not mix WWFF and POTA IDs.

SOTAMAT’s own warning, paraphrased: not for life-safety, not a replacement for a satellite communicator, hobby infrastructure, use at your own risk.

MeshCore LoRa room

If your club already runs a MeshCore mesh, one internet-connected room can take a SPOT post over LoRa and POST it to pota.app. Other operators do not need cell. Boards: Heltec V3, V4, V4 R8, or XIAO ESP32-S3 + SX1262, firmware v1.17.1+. Flash and setup: MeshCore POTA gateway · software notes. Run one live gateway; leave repeat off so daily mesh traffic stays on the real repeaters.

APSPOT and satellite SMS

New to APRS itself? Start with APRS for beginners.

APSPOT (VK2MES) is a one-stop APRS / SMS / Winlink spotting gateway into parksnpeaks / SOTAwatch / pota.app when you are a valid user on the destination. Usage: Getting Started. Regional SMS numbers: SMS Numbers.

SMS spot (from their Usage page): start with ! immediately followed by your callsign (no space), then activity, reference, frequency MHz, mode, optional comment. Activity tokens they list: WWFF, SOTA, POTA, SIOTA. Example pattern from that page:

!VK2MES POTA VK-3024 7.195 SSB CQCQ

Copy your callsign, your current official reference, your frequency and mode. Their examples may not match pota.app’s ISO-style US-xxxx — confirm on Usage the morning you leave. If the message contains the string test, APSPOT’s docs say it will do everything except post.

US SMS number listed 2026-09-15: +1 866 870 5797. Their page notes inbound US SMS is supported but replies may be pending toll-free registration — do not wait on a confirmation text. Also listed: Australia +61 4 89 905 884, Canada +1 867 877 2605. Recheck SMS Numbers — this is not a directory we maintain.

iPhone Messages via satellite: on supported iPhone 14+ / iOS 18+ in regions Apple documents (US, Canada, Japan; Mexico with later iOS per Apple’s iPhone guide), the Messages app can send SMS via satellite when you are off grid if your carrier supports it. That is a way to deliver the APSPOT (or SOTAMAT) SMS syntax without cell. It is not amateur-satellite operating — the Satellites chapter is FM birds and Doppler, a different job. Set it up before you lose coverage. Emergency SOS via satellite is a separate Apple feature; spotting recipes are not emergency communications.

Optional iOS helper that crafts an APSPOT SMS (not an awards app): Offline Spotter for POTA/SOTA. You still send through Apple Messages / APSPOT; we do not endorse it as official.

APRS/Winlink paths are on their Usage page if you already run those. Same rule: valid user on the spot site, or that leg silently does not post.

QRT etiquette

Hunters should not sit on a dead frequency because your phone died.

  1. Last call on the air a few times before you pull the plug — Activate closeout.
  2. Update the spot to QRT (comment, QRT mode in SOTAMAT if that is in your kit, or ask a hunter: “please spot me QRT”).
  3. If you cannot touch the cluster: say QRT on the air anyway, pack the paper times, fix the spot at the first parking-lot signal.
  4. Stay on the advertised frequency until you actually QRT. Silent QSY is how piles die.

Lightning, weather, or a ranger saying stop: QRT the station first — Ethics. Then worry about the cluster.

Rover QSY

Next park is a new activation, not a comment on the old spot.

UTC midnight still splits a POTA sitting. A rover that crosses 0000Z is two files — Activate.

Habits / gotchas / checklist

What this page is not

Sources

Notes & edits

Comments and proposed markdown sit in a queue. Nothing is public until it is reviewed. How this works.