getontheair.app

Parking-lot Field Sheet pack

You printed the Field Sheet in the driveway. Bars disappear in the lot. This page is the paper companion that fills the gaps the sheet already expects: which bands tend to work when, a France Active freshness reminder, and blank lines for the log / QRT / bailout that match the Field Sheet mental model.

It is not a spots page, not a logger, and not a replacement for the Field Sheet tool. Print /field/ for this park; keep this pack in the binder as the working crib. Independent of Parks on the Air, ARRL, and any awards body — confirm floors and eligibility on docs.pota.app.

First park day after a new Technician grant: First POTA activation. Driveway grab-and-go (first-aid, knife, offline maps): Field pack — hard lessons. Cell dies mid-sitting: Dead cell / rover QRT.

  1. Open Field Sheet — park name, official reference, 6-character grid, sunrise / sunset, freqs, hospital / ranger, weather / bailout.
  2. Print or Save-as-PDF while you still have cell.
  3. Print this page (or keep a laminated crib). Fill the band notes and paper-log lines before you leave the driveway.
  4. France (FR-) outing: confirm Active on pota.app this morning — POTA France — reference freshness. Do not trust a stale CSV.

Band-by-time crib (field habit, not an SF table)

Propagation changes with the solar cycle, the K-index, your antenna, and luck. Do not treat the lines below as science. They are a parking-lot memory aid so you do not stare at a quiet band for an hour when another planned band is open. Write your planned bands from the Field Sheet freqs section in the blanks. Read sunrise / sunset off the printed sheet — that is your day boundary, not a phone widget you cannot refresh.

When (local, rough)What often works (habit)Your planned bands (ink)
Before / around sunriseLower HF and local VHF often quieter; NVIS-ish short skip more common on low bands when they are open.________ / ________
Mid-morning → early afternoonHigher HF may open when conditions allow; VHF simplex stays local. If the pile dies, rotate the band you already planned — do not invent seven new ones.________ / ________
Late afternoon → sunsetLow bands often come back; hunters drive home and listen. Keep one eye on the bailout time on the Field Sheet.________ / ________
After dark / cold lotFinish the UTC-day floor if you are close; do not chase a new band if roads gate at dusk.________ / ________

Technician VHF first day: stay on 146.52 (national 2 m calling) or 146.58 (NAAF) simplex — land repeaters do not count for activator credit (POTA rules). HF operators: pick two bands you will actually run (Planning), write them on the sheet, and ignore the rest until rate dies.

Space-weather / contest weekends can trash any habit. Check K-index and contestcalendar.com before you lose cell — then trust the paper.

France Active check (planning freshness)

France POTA references are under Board review for ZNIEFF-only eligibility. This site does not invent a percentage of parks deactivated. Before a FR- drive:

Write the check on the Field Sheet margin: Active ✓ ____Z / ____ local.

Paper log lines (match the Field Sheet)

Header (copy from the printed sheet):

FieldInk
Callsign
Park name
Official ref (US-#### / …)
Grid (6-char)
UTC day (0000–2359Z)
Mode / band plan

QSO rows (UTC only — Planning — clocks are UTC):

#UTCCallRST sent / rcvdBand/modeNotes / their park
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Photograph each filled page before you pack. POTA floor is 10 QSOs in one UTC day — confirm on docs.pota.app. Ten-in-the-Log is a tap counter, not this paper log.

Bailout prompts (from the Field Sheet)

Fill these on the sheet and here so a second scrap survives if the print blows away:

If weather or a ranger move forces an early end: last call on air, update the spot when you can, then Dead cell / rover QRT if data is already gone.

QRT / last-call prompts

Say it a few times before you tear down — stations waiting on a fading band will take it (Activate — closeout):

  1. “Last calls for [reference] on [freq] — this is [call].”
  2. Log anyone who answers. Note end time UTC.
  3. Update or clear the spot when you have data (or ask a hunter). Do not leave a ghost cluster.
  4. Photograph paper pages. Close-out at home: Leave-the-park closeout — Doctor → Recap → POTA upload.

Non-goals

Notes & edits

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

Notes & edits

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