As an avid SOTA chaser and occasional POTA hunter, I respectfully request that you do not spot on both SOTA and POTA at the same time. It often creates a HUGE pileup that many activators are not well equipped to deal with efficiently, which means everyone has to wait for a very long time for a QSO. Be kind to your chasers / hunters by not making them compete for a QSO. Spot on SOTA (or POTA) and make QSOs until you have no more callers and then spot on the other program.
While I understand your concern and wishes Josh, Iām sure you understand that an activator on a cold (or for that matter really hot) summit that is also in POTA,WWFF,COTA,WCA etc. etc. may chose to multi-spot, to get sufficient contacts to complete the activation before the weather conditions get too bad.
So as always, the activator is king, what he/she decides is gospel.
I myself do split schemeās and spot/call by scheme, when in this situation, choosing the scheme that I think I will get the most calls from first, so that if I do have to end the activation early, it wonāt have been a wasted effort. Contacts for one scheme count for the others.
73 Ed DD5LP.
Absolutely. But if you spot on both and create a HUGE pileup and then struggle mightily to pick out any callsigns, how is that making the activation go faster? Itās not. It just creates frustration for all parties. Iāve missed plenty of chases because of a huge unruly pileup that the activator was failing to manage.
Just some advice for new folks who are considering doing SOTA+POTA. I chase a lot of SOTA+POTAs and all of the experienced ops split the activation so they are not spotted on both at the same time.
My error. Perry, W1GRD, does participate in SOTA. Has activator points in the double-digits.
I started activating in the SOTA program more than 10 years ago, and for many years I posted alerts only on SOTA. While living in Portugal during 2019-2021, because of the limited number of summits in the Algarve where I lived, I became interested in WFF (which is very popular in Europe but not as popular in the U.S.), and POTA (which is very popular in the U.S. but was not as popular in Europe). At the time, I viewed WWFF and POTA as useful adjunct programs to SOTA to help me gain more contacts, and also something to do if I didnāt want to drive a long distance to activate a SOTA summit. Sometimes I enjoyed simply going out to a nearby park and activating both WWFF and POTA. I started to become interested in the award schemes for all 3 programs.
Since returning to the U.S., Iāve continued my involvement in, and enjoyment of, all 3 programs. I sometimes activate a park that is not a SOTA summit, and for those activations I post alerts on both the POTA and WWFF websites. I sometimes activate a SOTA summit that is not in a park so I post an alert solely on the SOTA website. When I activate a SOTA summit located in a POTA and WWFF park, I post alerts on all 3 websites. Why do I post alerts for all 3 programs?
Posting alerts ahead of time for all 3 programs means:
73 de K9PM Paul
After a break of over 20 years ā because of SOTA ā I only got back into amateur radio a few years ago.
I have to admit that I wasnāt initially that impressed with POTA.
I pictured people driving their big pickup trucks into parks, occupying a barbecue area, and while the fire grew and the steaks sizzled, they hung their hefty 100-watt transceivers on the antenna wire, powered by the generator theyād brought along in the truck bedā¦
Maybe that actually exists ā I donāt know ā Cozy ā but pretty unsporty.
Then, a few years ago, I heard some US POTA stations calling CQ and answered them. They were thrilled to have a DX QSOā¦ some even told me it was their first.
So I signed up for POTA and was surprised to find Iād already earned awards. I hadnāt realized the activators had already made me a member.
When I had my accident in March 2025 and couldnāt walk for a while, I checked which parks I had already activated through SOTA. And there were quite a few. After uploading these activations, I was briefly number one in Germany, even though I had hardly uploaded more than one activation per park.
POTA is very generous in this regard!
- You can activate from your car.
- You can validate an activation even before the park existed.
- You often get multiple parks with one activation.
Because I couldnāt do any summits due to my knee problems, I then exclusively activated several parks in my neighborhoodā¦ and I have to admit, itās pretty cool!
The appeal of SOTA for me is also that it takes me to areas I didnāt know existed before. POTA does that too!
My knee is slowly getting betterā¦ and Iām already planning the first summitsā¦ but I can well imagine continuing to activate a park exclusively.
73 Armin
I have to concur. I came to POTA primarily because i dont have a car and live on a boat. To my surprise, there are hundreds of parks in the UK, you can activate and get credit everyday if you want, and in fact its encouraged through different awards. Iām just 100 QSOs short of my first āKiloā award, 1000 contacts from a single park.
Yes there are many pickup trucks and generator guys, but conversely, thereās plenty of lightweight portable ops.
I operate the same as SOTA, everything gets carried in my backpack.
Yes, it can be easier. I often find a picnic bench to set up and thereās often a coffee shop for lunch!
But it can be tough too. POTA has nowhere the following of SOTA. You also need 10 contacts to activate. You donāt have the advantage that elevation gives, and more than once Iāve failed to get 10 ITL . Iāve never failed on a SOTA activation using the same kitā¦
It also means I can activate without spending and hours and hours on the road driving. Now I just spend hours walking 
. Some of the Parks Iāve activated have involved a lot more physical exercise than some summits.
Ive a park planned for the next week. It will be 12 mile round trip walk, thatās pretty common, however for my quick activation today, I walked 50 yardsā¦
So, I canāt start my car, in order to drive home, from my radio battery? Show me that rule. 
Iāll try again āWrong. Sort of.ā 
The issue is some people will confabulate the rule āNo part of the station may be connected in any way to the motor vehicleā by saying they only connected the battery from the radio to the car to start the car for their XYL who was in the car and getting cold and the car wouldnāt start. And they forgot to remove the connections after. You know someone will try that, I know I do!
I donāt see anything wrong with that, it sounds to me like an extension of the idea of āField Dayā. There is nothing in the SOTA rules about power levels, it doesnāt have to be QRP so you can run any power that you can carry batteries for - nowadays batteries for QRO would probably weigh less than the outlawed for SOTA generators! 
I personally find it convenient to be able to find a QSO partner practically around the clock, thanks to the many different portable radio programs (such as IOTA, SOTA, POTA, WWFF, etc.). From this perspective, the different rules of the various programs are more of an advantage than a hindrance.
Yesterday morning, for example, I heard Bob, M5EEE, calling cq POTA in the park GB-4671 Llwybr Arfordirol Ynys MĆ“n (Anglesey Island Coast). The sound of his transmission was absolutely indescribable to my ears, not just because of the very distinctive call sign.I almost missed a QSO because I was listening so intently, because Bob went QRT after 10 QSOs, hi.
Just as an aside, my enjoyment of portable radio in CW began a long time ago in the āprogramā of the Swiss Armyās signal corps.
Any time I do POTA, I go to the centre or focus point of the place in question, when I could sit in the car park and complete the activity with 100W, but whereās the fun in that?
I could have activated Mullās Carsaig Arches from the car park, but instead took a rough 4 mile hike to see the spectacular focal point of the nature reserve.
I do recognise that POTA caters for all physical abilities, and for some, just getting to the great outdoors is enough. Like SOTA, POTA takes you to wonderful places you might never go to otherwise.
Back on topic, Iāve had two or three Park to Park calls from EU ops. while Iāve been activating SOTA summits. Itās a shame there isnāt a P2S or S2P badge.
