Program comparison & operating rules

Wrong program rules invalidate an activation. Read this before you leave the driveway, then confirm on the official site — associations change details.

Parameter	Parks on the Air (POTA)	Summits on the Air (SOTA)	World Wide Flora & Fauna (WWFF / KFF)	PARCS / local park programs
Minimum valid contacts	10 QSOs per activation session	4 QSOs per activation session	44 QSOs (may accumulate across visits — confirm your national branch)	Varies by club (often 5–10)
Power	No program limit. Grid, generator, battery, solar allowed.	Strictly portable: battery, solar, field power. No fossil generators, no mains grid.	Global WWFF (v5.7): no power-source ban; green preferred. Confirm your national programme — some branches are stricter.	Event-specific
Vehicles	Operating from a vehicle is allowed inside the park boundary (tailgate, RV). Hitch-mount 4WAVE is a POTA tool.	Forbidden. Rig, antenna, and power must be independent of a motorized vehicle. Final access to the AZ is non-motorized.	Global WWFF: motor vehicle inside the reference is accepted. Equipment still has to sit inside the boundary. Confirm the national programme.	Usually permitted inside the park
Modes & bands	All amateur bands and modes (CW, SSB, FT8, FM, etc.). No terrestrial repeaters.	All amateur bands and modes. No terrestrial repeaters.	All amateur bands and modes. No terrestrial repeaters.	Often simplex HF/VHF/UHF. Some events allow a local repeater — ask.
Activation zone	Inside the official park boundary.	Within 25 vertical metres (82 ft) of the designated summit. Antenna, operator, and radials in the AZ.	Inside the designated reserve / park.	Designated municipal or regional bounds
Field logger	Polo POTA activity	Polo SOTA activity	Polo WWFF activity	Club logger or Polo general op
Shack logger	N3FJP AC Log Other tags	Same, plus `MY_SOTA_REF`	Same, plus WWFF ref in Other / comment	Club
Log destination	`.adi` via pota.app	`.csv` or `.adi` via sotadata.org.uk	`.adi` to the regional / national log manager (see wwff.co)	Club platform or manager

Official rule books: docs.pota.app · sota.org.uk · wwff.co

Spots, map, account, and My Log Uploads live on pota.app. General program marketing is on parksontheair.com. Do not use pota.us for spots.

Only references on the official map/list count. A city park, private preserve, or pretty picnic area is not in POTA just because it is a park — look it up.

References you will type into a logger

POTA: US-1356 style (entity prefix + number). Older materials used K-xxxx; current US references are US-xxxx.
SOTA: Association / region / summit, e.g. W3/SV-001.
WWFF: Often KFF-xxxx in the US. A POTA park and a WWFF park can share a fence line and not share a number. Look it up; do not guess.

Those strings become MY_SIG_INFO / MY_POTA_REF / MY_SOTA_REF in ADIF. How: ADIF fields.

Dual-credit (2-fer)

POTA does allow 2-fers and 3-fers. Old 2020 wording that said “pick one park” is stale. You must sit in the overlap of every claimed unit — a fence line between two parks is inside neither. A SOTA summit inside a POTA unit can also be two programs in one sitting if you meet each program’s rules at the same time (QSO count, power, vehicle, AZ).

Logging: one physical QSO per hunter, duplicated in ADIF once per park. ADIF Doctor explodes comma lists.

Polo: two POTA activities on one operation → two POTA export files (plus Full ADIF).
AC Log: comma list in MY_POTA_REF / MY_SIG_INFO only after you have tested an export.
SOTA-inside-POTA: the hitch mount stays in the lot. The summit station walks.

See Planning and the Saturday planner.

Activator vs hunter (same bands, different homework)

Role	You submit logs?	Minimum QSOs	Typical gear
Activator	Yes — ADIF to program site	10 / 4 / 44 per rules above	Portable antenna, field logger, spot
Hunter	No — activator log is source of truth	None (work any spotted op)	Any station; etiquette still applies

POTA hunter stats come from activator logs. Hunters do not upload to pota.app. Repeaters do not count toward activation credit; simplex VHF/UHF does.

Hunters: Search & pounce. Activators: Activate. New callsign: Get on the air.

All programs listed allow CW, SSB, and digital modes on HF/VHF simplex — no terrestrial repeaters for activation credit. Common additions:

FT8/FT4: WSJT-X — busy on POTA; less common on SOTA summits
PSK31 / RTTY: FLdigi suite
SSTV / satellites: valid amateur contacts when exchanged properly — rarely the fastest path to minimum QSOs; see SSTV and Satellites

Each distinct mode on the same band can count as a separate QSO toward POTA minimums (same hunter, same UTC day). Confirm annually on docs.pota.app.

UTC day, dupes, and what a QSO is

A POTA activation is one UTC day (0000Z–2359Z), not your local Saturday. Ten QSOs that straddle midnight are two sittings. Near 0000Z, hunters often work you again — that is a new UTC day, not a dupe.

Dupe (same hunter, same band, same mode, same park, same UTC day) does not add another QSO toward the POTA 10. Different band or different mode does. SOTA’s four for points must be four different stations — working the same chaser twice does not make four.

A valid QSO is two-way: callsigns and a report. You cannot work yourself. Club / 1×1 on the air is STATION_CALLSIGN; the human at the mic is OPERATOR — N3FJP.

Repeaters, simplex, satellites

All three programs: no terrestrial repeaters for activation credit. Simplex VHF/UHF is fine. EchoLink / analog hotspot / DMR talkgroup is a repeater by another name.

Satellites: treat them as a separate pursuit until you have confirmed the current wording. Community write-ups often treat POTA satellite QSOs as valid amateur contacts (not land repeaters). WWFF-KFF FAQ language has treated actively repeating devices — including satellites — as not permitted. Confirm on docs.pota.app and your WWFF national FAQ before you count a pass toward a minimum. Parking-lot sat workflow: Satellites.

P2P / S2S matching (habit, then confirm)

Park-to-park is one physical QSO that both activators log with each other’s reference in SIG_INFO (yours stays in MY_SIG_INFO). POTA’s matcher has used a ~15 minute time window — if Polo and the other station’s clock differ by twenty minutes, the P2P never pairs. Set every clock to UTC before CQ. Hunter 2-fers: duplicate the row once per their park (Doctor explodes comma lists). Confirm current matching rules on docs.pota.app — Park to Park.

Where the log actually goes

Program	Who uploads	Where
POTA	Activator only	pota.app My Log Uploads. Not email to an area coordinator. Replacements: Request Help on that page.
SOTA	Activator (and chasers have their own path)	sotadata.org.uk
WWFF	Activator sends ADIF to the national / call-area log manager, who loads Logsearch. You do not self-upload like POTA.	wwff.co / your national FAQ (US KFF: wwff.us/logs)

Hunters do not upload to pota.app or WWFF Logsearch. Their credit is your file. Still keep a hunter log for LoTW/QRZ.

Habits / gotchas / checklist

Reference is on the official map/list (US-####, not a pretty city park and not a stale K-xxxx PDF).
You sit in the overlap for every 2-fer you will claim — fence-line photos are not overlap.
Trail / linear POTA: confirm this year’s activation zone on docs.pota.app. Do not invent a parking-lot exception.
SOTA: operator, radio, and the far radial inside the 25 m AZ; no hitch mount; no generator.
WWFF 44 may accumulate across visits — still submit a short log so hunters get credit.
Paper log in the kit. Digital close-out: ADIF Doctor → Recap from Full.

Notes & edits

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