Once upon a time, I slogged through salt marsh on an epic eight-park rove, purely to settle my completionist tendencies, and produce a cathartic New Parks map showing all the parks in my local area in green. But back in late summer, the POTA powers-that-be decided to recognise a few more parks in my local area: sixteen more, to be precise.

Clearly I couldn’t let this stand. However, for me the problem was that almost none of these parks are places I really wanted to activate. From small scraps of land to busy thoroughfares, none of them provided the kind of long heathland hikes and “proper” nature that I like doing for my POTA activations.

I needed some motivation to get my map green again, so I decided I would challenge myself to do as many of these in quick succession as possible. And then, one evening, I got bored enough… to make a tour poster.

A week off in October finally provided the chance I needed. Unlike the Christchurch salt-marsh rove, these really would be civilised activations that I would drive between, blitzing through them for the personal challenge rather than real in-the-moment enjoyment. Still type 2 fun, just… drier.

Is this “real POTA”? I’m sure some will say it’s not, particularly in the later activations which were ten repeats of “59 14” and the phrase “CQ POTA” never crossed my lips. But we can’t all have what I assume the U.S. POTA experience is like, with epic hikes and similarly epic drives to activate the Grand Canyon itself. No, this is British town park POTA, a different breed altogether. The American rules for what qualifies as a park just don’t work here, and practically any scrap of grass can count.

But you make your own challenges. If the parks themselves won’t let me hike, I’ll just find another way to test myself—by doing all of them, all at once.

Here we go.

21 Oct 0830-0900Z: GB-5149 Hatch Pond

I’m sure Hatch Pond is lovely, if you could explore it. You can’t. A few scraps of road-side grass are all that the public have access to, so there was no need to linger long. I set up the JPC-12 vertical, my regular antenna for confined spaces, got 20 QSOs in the log in half an hour on 20 metres, then packed up again. Nothing to see here!

21 Oct 0920-0945Z: GB-5347 Hamworthy Park

Here, at least, there was space—although for simplicity I did use the vertical antenna again. Hamworthy Park is largely just open flat grass, though with views over Poole Harbour and pastel coloured beach huts lining the waterfront, you can’t fault it for scenery. It’s also busy with dog walkers, paddleboarders, kite surfers, and all the rest.

I made 14 QSOs in just under 20 minutes here.

21 Oct 1015-1040Z: GB-5346 Whitecliff Park

It’s funny how much smaller Whitecliff Park is than I think of it being. Every time we’re here for Poole Harbour Festival it feels huge, but as soon as you see it empty, it looks a lot smaller. Regardless, it did have plenty of space for the 40m inverted-V dipole, which I set up despite some rather squelchy ground underfoot.

The 40m band allowed for a much easier activation, and I got through 30 QSOs in just under 20 minutes. No waiting around on 40m when conditions are good!

21 Oct 1100-1115Z: GB-5345 Poole Park

Poole Park is a busy place, but at its far eastern end there is a tiny section where few people bother going, slightly wilder than the rest. I set up the vertical antenna again for 20m next to an old tree stump brimming with new life, and used the shelter of an old oak tree to hide from the light rain that had just begun to fall.

13 QSOs in 10 minutes was all I managed here—the rain was getting heavier all the time, and I decided to call it quits. A good job, too, as no sooner had I reached the car than the heavens opened, and the first of the day’s downpours began. Home, and lunch, felt like the better option.

Besides, I needed some time to build up my courage for what was coming.

22 Oct 0720-0800Z: GB-5233 Bournemouth Lower Gardens

Here’s the one I was dreading.

For a few months, I’d been contemplating suggesting Bournemouth Gardens as a POTA park, thinking of the nice reclusive spot in the Upper Gardens that would be ideal for an activation. (See below.) But someone got there first, and when they did, they chose to split it into Upper and Lower. I’d have to do them both, separately.

There’s no reclusive spots in the Lower Gardens; nowhere to hide. On a summer afternoon this place is absolutely packed with people. And yet on just such a day back in August, another local POTA operator, Ingy M0MHJ, managed an activation. I can’t match quite that level of confidence, and so waited my chance for a cold early morning on a weekday, when only a few dozen people would wander by instead of a few thousand.

It was a slow start. I only had the space for the vertical, as the large areas of grass by the river were being mown by a noisy ride-on lawnmower, bumping me off into one of the smaller patches of grass dotted with shrubs and trees. With a poor choice of bands for that time of day and a continent not yet fully awake, it took 30 minutes to get 11 QSOs in the log. At that point it seemed like they would be mowing my section of grass next, so I took the hint and packed away.

It wasn’t a great activation, but it would do. Of all the parks in all the world, it was this one I was most nervous of—and it was done.

Just 12 hours before, I’d accidentally found myself invited to the Lord Lieutenant’s awards ceremony, a formal military event, whilst wearing jeans and a hoodie. I survived that, and I survived activating Bournemouth Lower Gardens. If I could get through two embarassing events like those within a day of each other, I could certainly manage anything else that portable radio operating could throw at me!

Intermission: August 1992

Of course it wouldn’t be this blog unless POTA was an excuse to drag childhood photos out of the archive.

Many years ago, the highlight of the summer in Bournemouth Gardens was Candlelight Night. Dozens of images, made of tea lights in coloured glass jars, would be put up throughout the Lower Gardens, and the kids would each get a long taper to go around lighting them. Some of them were even in the river, so wellies were advised! You can read more about it here, including some photos from years past—and here’s me, lighting candles and rocking my Thunderbirds jumper in the early 90s.

22 Oct 0830-0900Z: GB-5229 Bournemouth Upper Gardens

Alright, time for some peace and quiet at the Upper Gardens location I wanted to activate all along.

The Gardens stretch for over a mile, from the sea at the bottom of the Lower Gardens to Coy Pond at the top of the Upper Gardens—and a little bit further beyond. The very top of the Gardens isn’t visited much by tourists, just dog walkers, and the decent amount of space there gave me chance to bring the dipole antenna out again and activate on 40 metres.

Things were a bit slower here than the previous day’s 40m activation, and I netted 14 QSOs in half an hour.

At this point it was occurring to me that my choice of footwear might not have been the best. I had gone with trainers since there was no hiking to be done, but despite nominally being “trail” trainers, they were not at all waterproof. Even the morning dew on the long grass was starting to soak through, and my socks were getting wet. It seemed I couldn’t escape this rove being a little like the Christchurch one.

22 Oct 0930-1000Z: GB-5348 Branksome Chine

Another civilised park activation, close to a car park and with an overpriced cup of coffee in hand. 16 QSOs were had here in just over 20 minutes, including—eventually—a park-to-park with IK1SOW where my report was 2 & 1.

Other than that, not much to say. If this park was quiet in the summer, it would be a lovely place to spend a lot more time, radio or otherwise. But this is a stone’s throw from Bournemouth beach, so you can imagine what it’s like in grockle season!

22 Oct 1030-1110Z: GB-5147 Kinson Common

I saved a nice one for last on the Wednesday. Despite having urban areas on all sides, up on the hill of Kinson Common surrounded by heathland, it really doesn’t feel like it. I spent a bit longer here than the morning’s other activations, getting 26 in the log over the course of around 40 minutes, including two POTA 2-fer-to-2-fer QSOs with SP3ATB and DL9CE.

But by 1200 local time, lunch was calling. I’d put four more parks in the log, and now it was time for another well-earned break. The weather forecast for the afternoon looked pretty dodgy, so once again midday was the end of the day’s portable activities.

24 Oct 0840-0945Z: GB-5677 Canford SANG

This wasn’t really a “Park I Don’t Wanna Do”, it’s actually quite nice—although not exactly natural, this dog-walking spot has a lot of open grass and even some handy picnic tables, making it great for simple easy POTA activations. It cropped up on the map only a few days before the challenge week, so I’m considering this one a “bonus park”, and it’s the reason the total park count for the week ended up at 17 and not 16.

Since this was an extra bonus park and there were no others on the schedule for the day, I didn’t rush to other locations, and spent some proper time here getting 64 QSOs in the log in as many minutes.

25 Oct 1300-1330Z: GB-5228 Kings Park

I put “10m” on the poster, so with my first afternoon activation of the bunch, it was time to actually try it. Luckily, this weekend was also “easy QSOs weekend”, aka the CQ WW SSB contest. There would be no space for a “CQ POTA” on the contest bands, but there’d be no need—if all I wanted was 10 QSOs in the log, I could just work up the band giving my “59 14” until I was done, and score some nice DX contacts in the process.

After making sure there was no AFC Bournemouth home match on, I headed to King’s Park, set up my antenna for 10m, started at 28300kHz and worked upwards until I had 11 QSOs in the log. These included one with C5R, providing the Gambia as a new DXCC for me.

25 Oct 1400-1425Z: GB-5234 Queens Park

After dodging a rain shower and acquiring a coffee, next up was nearby Queens Park. Again, nice and simple, 10 QSOs in the log including getting Moldova for the first time on SSB.

One advantage to working the 10m band is how compact the antenna can be. Rather than 20m, where I break the antenna into four pieces to stow in my bag, the antenna set up for 10m can just be hand carried in one piece, once the tripod has been folded, ground radials looped, and whip collapsed.

25 Oct 1440-1520Z: GB-5034 Shelley Park

Over to the cliff-top and Shelley Park, which has more space than I thought it would have for antenna setup, but the tree canopy would still have prevented the use of any long poles. I stuck with 10 metres, and continued my way up the band, although it was getting slightly harder to get heard in North America at this point, and 10 QSOs is all I could manage in half an hour.

25 Oct 1550-1610Z: GB-5349 Boscombe Chine Gardens

The view from the gardens isn’t much to write home about, but the view from the nearby clifftop definitely is. As I was watching, a rainbow appeared, over Hengistbury Head, as if promising good DX.

Since 10 metres was a challenge in Shelley Park, I dropped back to 20 metres here, and as you might expect blitzed through the contacts without struggling to be heard. This activation also gave me my first time working Bosnia Herzegovina on SSB.

By 1600Z, the wind was picking up and the temperature dropping, so I didn’t stretch it out any longer than necessary, and headed home for warmth and dinner.

26 Oct 0815-0847Z: GB-5063 Seafield Gardens

Another one I was looking forward to even less than the rest, Seafield Gardens has only a small scrap of land that would fit even my vertical antenna. The rest is taken up by a large play park, tennis courts, a bowling green, and the imposing brick water tower.

The day started cold, around 5C with a 20-knot wind dropping the apparent temperature even more. My slowly numbing fingers got through 10 QSOs of CQ WW SSB contest on 20 metres, and I was done. The number included Z68MU, providing my first SSB QSO with Kosovo.

Like I said above, is this “real POTA”? Who knows. But I was a strange guy on a bench next to a kids’ play park, fiddling with strange equipment in the cold, and I decided 10 contest QSOs was good enough for me. I would imagine the long hikes I could do, the hours of “real POTA”, once this was done, once my map was green and I could sleep well again.

26 Oct 0900-0940Z: GB-5095 Jumpers Common Rec

Jumpers Common Rec is at least larger than Seafield Gardens, although I’m still glad I brought the JPC-12 rather than anything bigger. The radio portion of the activation was just as routine as the previous one, seeing me slowly work my way up the 20m band and put another 10 contest QSOs in the log.

The highlight of this one was meeting Peter G0ROJ out walking his dog, and having a nice chat about portable radio, antennas, and so on. It really makes my day to meet another ham out in the wild!

26 Oct 0955-1015Z: GB-5128 Mudeford Rec

One last open grassy field for this challenge, Mudeford Rec is mostly just a cricket pitch, though it has a slightly wilder triangle of grass in one corner, where I set up. If anything, this was even less eventful than the others—I didn’t even remember to take a photo! 10 contest QSOs were the goal again, and once I had started to shiver in the cold wind, it was definitely time for some tea from the thermos and to pack away.

26 Oct 1035-1110Z: GB-5145 Mude Valley / Mudeford Woods

While there is a lot of open grass on the nearby playing field, ideal for bigger antennas, that sadly falls outside the boundary of the thickly wooded nature reserve itself. There’s one exception, one small triangle of grass and scrub with no tree cover. This is where I set up, next to the central path between Mudeford Woods Community Centre and the industrial estate only 50m across this tiny river valley.

I set up quickly, accidentally disturbing a foraging jay in the process, and got on the air again for my 17th and final park of the challenge.

Again, I blitzed through 10 contest QSOs. By that time, on the day’s journey upwards from 14100kHz, I’d nearly reached 14300, so I decided I’d stick it out until I reached the top of the band at 14350. I also wanted my first transatlantic QSO of the day, if I could get it—and eventually it paid off. I had 12 more QSOs, including one transatlantic, which also brought the total QSO count for the week to 301.

At long last, I was done!

Here’s some quick stats. Out of the 301 QSOs:

• 208 were “POTA” QSOs, and 93 were contest QSOs
• 108 were on 40m, 162 on 20m, and 31 on 10m
• I worked 33 DXCCs in 9 CQ zones
• Furthest DX was Steve N2IC in New Mexico, USA at 8250km

And most importantly for the challenge, I activated 17 parks across five days, meaning I’ve now activated all 48 parks currently in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area. The Hatch Pond activation, only six days ago, somehow already feels like a lifetime.

But once again, the map is green, and I can rest easy.

Until the next park is added, anyway.

Thank you so much for joining me on this tour of the “Parks I Don’t Wanna Do”! Whether you called in to a POTA activation, were an unknowing victim on the other end of a contest QSO, or just made it to the end of this blog post, thank you. I couldn’t do this without you, and I wouldn’t want to. You rock! 🤘