If I’m activating a summit that is also within the boundaries of a park is it rude to also post an alert to POTA? I’m just wondering how the regular SOTA chasers would feel about competing with the POTA chasers as well. Of course it works out great for me as an activator since it almost guarantees I’ll fill my logbook, but I wonder if it’s rude to the dedicated SOTA chasers to basically put them into a longer que.
I know it’s allowed. I’m just wondering if anyone thinks it’s rude or if I’m overthinking this. How do others feel?
I have posted to both at the same time, and no one has complained. I am very mindful of uploading logs to both if I post on both. While I don’t have any real data to base this on, it seems that, at least in my part of Eastern California running QRP, I don’t notice an appreciable increase in the number of chaser/hunters finding me if I post to both. I expect that could be very different back East where I understand there is more POTA activity. Lately, I have just been posting SOTAwatch alerts and getting plenty of contacts (geomagnetic storms notwithstanding).
Josef,
To the best of my knowledge, nothing prevents you from posting an Alert in both SOTA and POTA. If you are mainly interested in filling a logbook, then it may be beneficial to post everywhere. If, however, you are interested in s2s and/or QRP chaser contacts, then you may want to delay posting in POTA until you have exhausted all the potential SOTA chasers. Some guys purposely list their POTA time an hour later than their SOTA alert to avoid conflict.
In my experience back here East, the POTA mob eagerly descends on your spot (many using the spot frequency for automatic rig tuning) with little regard for other callers and somewhat ignorant about what “s2s” means. In my SOTAWatch Alert comments I may mention that I am within a POTA entity for any chasers who need the park or want a p2p contact, but I seldom post Alerts anymore on the POTA website. As was mentioned, if you post an Alert in POTA, then you are obliged to submit your log to POTA.
Others are surely entitled to their own opinion.
Stay well & 73!
Mike, WB2FUV
Hi Josef. I agree with Mike. If you’re doing dual activations you might want to give SOTA ops a head start. If you self spot, maybe a 15 minute lead per band. If you’re using rbn then probably an hour lead.
When I get to a summit I just want to operate so I tend to rely on rbn. I rarely self spot using my phone.
However, I like a pileup that lasts for 30 minutes or more. After hiking all that way, I want to make as many contacts as possible. So I do rbn alerts for SOTA POTA and wwff all at the same time. It depends on what you’re into. Of course, I give S2S preference, and since it’s such a distinctive sound I can usually hear it in a massive pileup. I’m cw only so I don’t know how that works on an SSB pileup.
I’m new to CW. I’ve just completed my first 175 CW QSO’s via POTA activations. so now I’m feeling confident enough to go activate a summit. I can get through the standard exchange as long as the chaser doesn’t try to get chatty. I’m going to take yours and Mike’s advice and if I do spot POTA it’ll be after I’ve already given the SOTA chasers their shot. I do love how RBN just spots me and I don’t have to fuss around with spotting myself. Now I know why the CW folks rarely seem to use SSB. It adds more steps to the process! In any case, It would suck to have the POTA folks ruin an S2S because they don’t know the etiquette.
I don’t participate in POTA - although there are a number of POTA parks close to me some with many SOTA summits within them - but mean to one day. However, I do often activate another radio scheme simultaneously with SOTA. It’s called Wainwrights-on-the-Air and is geographically located in the English Lake District National Park and most of the 55 SOTA G/LD summits are also WOTA summits (There are many additional WOTA summits that topologically don’t qualify as SOTA summits).
Although any band or mode is permitted in practise WOTA QSOs are mainly 2m FM. So, if I’m activating one of those summits on 2m FM, I’ll call CQ SOTA, CQ WOTA and give the SOTA or WOTA summit references (they are different) as requested. I’ve never heard any dissent or confusion from chasers.
As for alerts, the WOTA website very helpfully monitors the SOTA G/LD alerts and re-posts them on its website along with locally-posted alerts.
For joint SOTA-POTA CW mode (my favourite SOTA mode) I would probably send cq sota sota cq pota pota de callsign. I understand POTA references are not often exchanged but I would send both references periodically or on request e.g. sota ref g/ld052 pota ref g0191
The thing with POTA is that its scoring system relies entirely on activators uploading their logs. Consequently, the logs for any SOTA activation you might happen to have done within a POTA-qualifying area could be uploaded to POTA whenever you chose, and a bunch of hunters would suddenly find they’d caught you years ago without realising.
The flip side? Don’t mention POTA during your SOTA activation unless you’re going to upload the log to POTA as well…
Personally, when I’m activating I can deal with exactly one scheme at a time, and when I’m chasing I often give frenetic pile-ups a pass.
We have a similar situation in the UK with WWFF, in that it is possible to post separate Alerts for SOTA and WWFF activations when a SOTA summit lies withing an WWFF Reference area.
It is not against any rules I am aware of, is not unusual, and it all encourages outdoor radio activity.
WOTA is still very much alive. We moved to a discourse based forum for chat, there is a link off the main page or you can go direct https://discourse.wota.xyz/
I will make an update to the news to make sure folk know where to go.
Just to add to what Mark said about WOTA news and chat, there is still a healthy number of WOTA activators and chasers. The lead activator in 2022 and 2023 (not me!) did 61 and 53 summits respectively.
I’ve done this a couple of time. I’m partial to SOTA over POTA, so I’ll post the SOTA activation first and work as many folks as I can. After I’ve worked through the bands, then I’ll post to POTA and work those folks.
I prefer to err on the side of cutting a POTA activation short, rather than the SOTA part.
I’ve also participated in CWTs during a SOTA activation – every contact counts!
(Apart from apparently being better behaved) Is that because many SOTA chasers are chasing a specific summit? I don’t know how POTA award points work. Are POTA chasers less bothered about the park references they work?
It’s mostly about being better behaved. I also don’t like the fact that POTA only allows ADIF uploads of logs, yet doesn’t use the park ID field. So, if you’re uploaded a log that covers two different parks simultaneously (a state park in a national forest is common around here), you have to upload two logs for folks to receive credit for both. I much prefer the SOTA log uploading scheme.
Consequently, the logs for any SOTA activation you might happen to have done within a POTA-qualifying area could be uploaded to POTA whenever you chose, and a bunch of hunters would suddenly find they’d caught you years ago without realising. 
