I resumed the hunt for POTA activators on New Year’s Day.

There is just so much field activity going on that it’s almost difficult not to bump into it. To make it a little more interesting for me I’ve been using CW and and 10 watts only this year. (Remind me to tell you sometime how ten watts has become the new five watts in the low-power world). I’ve logged 41 park contacts in 2023 and it seems that was enough for another award, this one for having worked 300 unique reference areas.

The Parks on the Air program continues it’s rapid growth and is easily the fastest growing facet of amateur radio in the United States. And since opening up internationally, it’s appeal is quickly adding operators around the planet. Take a look at the POTA 2022 Wrap-Up video detailing that expansion. By the way, I wasn’t even aware until recently that organizers were producing these videos regularly so subscribing to that channel was an obvious choice.

Despite some success at hunting others I have yet to activate a park and I hope that will change soon. But probably not this week as a Winter Storm Watch for the next several days was just issued for my area. They say to expect 5-9 inches of snow by Wednesday afternoon. I’ll believe it when I see it, but I probably won’t be taking a radio into the field any time soon. For now I’m happy enough to continue hunting those hearty enough to venture out in all kinds of weather – from the warmer side of the window.