Blog

POTA as Ingress

Written on Friday 25 Apr 2025

A conversation on fedi earlier today got me thinking about the idea of turning Parks on the Air into an Ingress-style game. The data is all out there—reference points with defined locations, “most recent activator” data; the POTA API itself is halfway there to the kind of server you would...

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52 Week Ham Radio Challenge Roundup: Weeks 13-16

Written on Sunday 20 Apr 2025

If you’ve read the first post in this series or are playing along yourself, you’ll be aware of the 52 Week Ham Radio Challenge. If not, hit up that link for the details! This post covers the challenges from weeks 13-16, which were: Make a QSO from an unusual location...

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POTA/WWFF Activation Report: Ballard Down

Written on Sunday 20 Apr 2025

This weekend was both POTA’s Support Your Parks Spring event and week 16 of the 52-week Ham Challenge, “Make a contact with a xOTA station”, so naturally it was time for more outdoor radio. I headed up to Ballard Down, GB-0082 for POTA and GFF-0099 for WWFF. And when I...

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POTA/BOTA Activation Report: Greenham Common

Written on Friday 11 Apr 2025

Family stuff saw me in Newbury this morning with three hours to kill and nothing planned. Obviously it was time for more outdoor radio nonsense. While Newbury and the surrounding area have a number of nice-looking parks, I settled on the only one with a cafe, its own amateur radio...

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RaDAR Rally Report, Spring 2025

Written on Sunday 6 Apr 2025

Unless this is your first time reading my blog, you probably know that I like amateur radio and hiking. I’m also a fan of poring over maps, meticulous planning, and madcap races against the clock. I spent months agonising over backpacks, eventually settling on one I could operate my radio...

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POTA Activation Report: Higher Hyde Heath

Written on Tuesday 1 Apr 2025

40 activations into my “POTA phase” and every time I head out, I still start feelling sick, and think about calling it off. I push through it of course, because you have to get out and do these things—the alternative is retreating into my ever-shrinking comfort zone until I never...

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POTA Activation Report: St Catherine's Hill

Written on Saturday 29 Mar 2025

Parks on the Air has, in recent months, turned from a hobby to more of an obsession. I spend too much time thinking about potential future activations, and often dreaming about them too. Case in point, in the early hours of Thursday morning I woke up from a dream that...

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POTA Activation Report: Pinecliff Gardens

Written on Friday 28 Mar 2025

Small, busy town parks aren’t my favourite POTA spots, but GB-4194 Pinecliff Gardens is the last of them that I’d never activated in my town—its time had come to get checked off the list. I’ve actually been here for POTA before, as it’s almost exactly the location I picked for...

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POTA Activation Report: Kingston Great Common

Written on Sunday 23 Mar 2025

With 30 minutes to kill en route to Burley, I decided to hit up GB-0079 Kingston Great Common for some radio nerdery. Although I’ve activated the New Forest National Park before, I’d never been to this bit, so it was another park to tick off the list. Hopefully I’ll return...

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52 Week Ham Radio Challenge Roundup: Weeks 9-12

Written on Saturday 22 Mar 2025

If you’ve read the first post in this series or are playing along yourself, you’ll be aware of the 52 Week Ham Radio Challenge. If not, hit up that link for the details! This post covers the challenges from weeks 9-12, which were: Try to work an FM repeater on...

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