Parks on the Air (POTA) – Intro
Beginning in July 2020 I’ve been operating frequently from locations away from my home QTH, “activating” state and national parks under the Parks on the Air (POTA) program. (Facebook group is here.)
This program offers an incredible excuse to get outdoors and enjoy the many parks available in Ohio and around the country, and the views are so much better than I can possibly achieve sitting in my shack at home. Since being first licensed in 1983, POTA has provided more ham radio fun for me than any other activity associated with this hobby.
One question that often arises is this: How do I enter and submit my log to get credit for the activation? This page is intended to answer that question and provide some simple options.
Logging Spreadsheets
The sections that follow provide an overview of logging requirements and a description of the Numbers and Excel spreadsheets I’ve developed for use during and after POTA activations.
To grab the spreadsheets now and to begin using them immediately, please visit these pages:
POTA Logging Requirements
One requirement for activating a park (called “references” in POTA-speak) is that logs must be emailed to the regional coordinator for your call area formatted as an “Amateur Data Interchange Format” (ADIF) file. ADIF standardizes field names and formats, and stores log entries in a text file.
POTA uses only the following ADIF fields for activation logs:
| Field Name | Description | Example |
| STATION_CALLSIGN | Your station’s call sign. (Only one allowed per log.) | N1AAA |
| OPERATOR | Call sign of operator activating the park. (Usually the same as the station callsign. Only one allowed per log.) | N1AAA |
| MY_SIG | Your park program. | POTA |
| MY_SIG_INFO | Your park reference number. (Only one allowed per each log entry. Submit separate logs for multi-park activations.) | K-0123 |
| QSO_DATE | UTC date in yyyymmdd. | 20210104 |
| TIME_ON | UTC start time of QSO in hhmm or hhmmss. | 1502 |
| CALL | The other party’s call sign. (Only one allowed per each log entry.) | A1AAA |
| BAND | Your band (in meters). | 40m |
| MODE | Your operating mode (e.g, CW, SSB). | CW |
| SIG | Park program. Required only if the contacted party is also activating a park | POTA |
| SIG_INFO | POTA park reference number. Required only if the contacted party is also activating a park. Only one allowed per each log entry. | K-1234 |
Per POTA guidelines, ADIF file names must include the station callsign, the park number, and the activation date, in the format MYCALLSIGN@PARK-YYMMDD. An example file name is N1AAA@K-0123-20201231.adi. Activators are advised to not combine parks or dates in the same file.
Logs are emailed to the dedicated and all-volunteer regional coordinators based on the number in the activator’s call sign. Email addresses are of the form k#@parksontheair.com. For instance, KZ3L would submit to k3@parksontheair dot com.
Creating a Log
Some activators choose to hand-write logs during an activation and transfer them into an electronic log afterwards, while others (such as yours truly) prefer to enter the log real-time. The former has the advantage of allowing the operator to jot down multiple call signs heard in a pile-up, and work them in succession; the latter is advantageous since it reduces post-activation processing time.
There are many ways to create the ADIF log for submitting to the POTA program. Whether entered real-time or after the activation, both methods ultimately require entry of the required fields into an electronic database. Dedicated logging applications, such as the Amateur Contact Log by N3FJP, are popular tools for doing this.
On the iPad, which I and many others enjoy using in the field, Hamlog73 has been my preferred application. Unfortunately, Hamlog73 is no longer available on the Apple App Store and is no longer supported by its author. Although we can continue using Hamlog73 in the near term, the writing is on the wall and its days are numbered.
Spreadsheet-Based Logging: Apple Numbers and Microsoft Excel
In response to the sun-downing of Hamlog73 and the need for some activators without dedicated logging tools to have a means to create and submit ADIF logs, I developed logging templates for spreadsheet applications that can be used on the iPad OS (Numbers) and Microsoft Windows (Excel) platforms. Personally, I’ve migrated to using Numbers on the iPad for routinely logging my contacts, with the solution presented herein.
Numbers and Excel do not contain identical features. For this reason each format offers slightly different capabilities.
Common features: Advantages common to both spreadsheet formats include:
- Allows use of familiar spreadsheet applications for entry of log data
- Activators can enter data elements one time and copy them to subsequent log entries after the activation. For instance, when changing bands or frequencies, enter the new data once and copy/paste later to save time during the activation.
- Likewise, when contacting other activators, if they are simultaneously activating multiple parks or sharing the activation between multiple operators, you can copy cells from the first entry into the next line and change the relevant field (such as the park reference or the operator).
- Activation-wide data (station and operator call signs, park number, grid square, county, equipment) can be entered once in the MAIN tab, to be exported later and included in every log entry.
- It is easy to generate ADIF files for multi-park and multi-operator activations; simply change the activation-wide data mentioned above and export a new ADIF for submission to the regional coordinator.
- Column headings may be reordered to match the operator’s logging needs.
- The ADIF entries are “calculated” by the spreadsheet to match the required format and can be easily exported to a .adi file.
- Both solutions are low-cost for current users of each office suite. Apple Numbers is free for iOS. On Windows, many people already have the Microsoft Office suite, making Excel readily available to them.
- ADIF files generated via either spreadsheet may be imported into other common logging applications. (Most of the popular logging programs allow importing ADIF files.)
- Instructions for using the logs are included in the first tab of each spreadsheet.
Excel-Specific:
- The Excel version of the spreadsheet takes advantage of Excel’s ability to execute macros. ADIF files can be exported directly to an ADIF with the push of a single button, visible on the MAIN log tab.
- Another button, also available on the MAIN tab, allows the user to clear the MAIN log sheet for a subsequent activation. (Remember to save the file under a new name so you don’t lose the old data!)
Numbers-Specific:
- The iPad OS version of Numbers does not allow use of macros. Therefore, a text editor software package (QuickText Plain Text Editor) must be used to save the exported data into an ADIF file. QuickText is available for free on the iOS App Store. The free version allows you to edit up to five files per week; if you need more than that, the cost for the software is $4.99 (as of Jan 3, 2021).
- Exporting the ADIF file simply involves visiting the ADIF tab, highlighting the first column of cells down to the last log entry, and copying/pasting them into QuickText.
- From QuickText, the file can be saved with an .adi extension locally on your iPad or another iPad OS file manager location, and may be emailed directly to yourself and/or your regional coordinator from the application itself using the default Mail application.