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Ham radio is a hobby and, like all hobbies, different people get different things out of it. Some people enjoy restoring and operating antique equipment. Some

Ham radio is a hobby and, like all hobbies, different people get different things out of it. Some people enjoy restoring and operating antique equipment. Some people enjoy designing and building homebrew gear. Some people enjoy the challenge of working esoteric propagation modes, like bouncing signals off thunderstorms or aurorae or the moon, or relaying through the ISS or a handful of dedicated artificial satellites. Some people emphasize the rock-bottom reliability of the technology. Two people with appropriate gear and knowledge can communicate with each other, and do so completely independently of any third-party infrastructure. This was a total superpower up until about 30 years ago, and remains appealing when thinking about emergency scenarios. Some people are naturally competitive and will make a game of anything possible. These people have invented awards -- along with various pseudo-regulatory bodies to allocate same -- for things like making a radio contact on each of the seven continents, or for contacting the most people within a designated 48h period, or many other feats defined by various -- largely arbitrary -- rules. POTA is one such set of rules. The "national/state level park" aspect is just to put some constraints on the competition. As others have pointed out, this is basically the same as niantic forcing you to get off your couch and walk down the block to the churchtower before you can catch a pokemon. This requirement bleeds a little into the previous point, since it necessitates a portable rig (either human-carried or mounted to a vehicle of some sort). Such a rig would be more useful in a hypothetical emergency comms scenario than one that requires mains electricity, a power amp the size of a filing cabinet, and a 30m antenna bolted to the side of your house that just burned down. But yeah, in the end it's basically Pokemon Go that requires custom hardware and uses national/state parks in lieu of defining their own map of pokespots.

nullc 2y ago
A point I felt worth mentioning is that many of the contest things are pretty hard core. Serious effort, serious equipment, fairly intense. (to give a kind of extreme example: https://youtu.be/2Rh3-K8V4_o?t=266 https://youtu.be/2Rh3-K8V4_o?t=266 ) POTA is very laid back. Only the party in the park even needs to log. > But yeah, in the end it's basically Pokemon Go that requires custom hardware and uses national/state parks in lieu of defining their own map of pokespots. parks are also at least little interesting, I've learned about a lot of parks that I never would have known about just due to looking them up when I see stations operating out of them. Also POTA (and other such contact collecting activities) provide an opportunity to practice your radio skills and use your equipment without the risk of getting involved in conversations you're not interested in or don't have time for. It's not rude to not get into a conversation, 'cause you're trying to rack up contacts and there are people waiting! One of the top reasons against amateur radio I hear from non-hams is that they don't have anything to talk to other hams about. Turns out there is plenty to do without having a conversation on the radio. (Of course, for people who want to converse there are plenty of opportunities to do that-- opportunities that are enhanced by contact collecting activities that do a lot to explore what locations are reachable.)

nullc 2y ago

A point I felt worth mentioning is that many of the contest things are pretty hard core. Serious effort, serious equipment, fairly intense. (to give a kind of extreme example: https://youtu.be/2Rh3-K8V4_o?t=266 https://youtu.be/2Rh3-K8V4_o?t=266 ) POTA is very laid back. Only the party in the park even needs to log. > But yeah, in the end it's basically Pokemon Go that requires custom hardware and uses national/state parks in lieu of defining their own map of pokespots. parks are also at least little interesting, I've learned about a lot of parks that I never would have known about just due to looking them up when I see stations operating out of them. Also POTA (and other such contact collecting activities) provide an opportunity to practice your radio skills and use your equipment without the risk of getting involved in conversations you're not interested in or don't have time for. It's not rude to not get into a conversation, 'cause you're trying to rack up contacts and there are people waiting! One of the top reasons against amateur radio I hear from non-hams is that they don't have anything to talk to other hams about. Turns out there is plenty to do without having a conversation on the radio. (Of course, for people who want to converse there are plenty of opportunities to do that-- opportunities that are enhanced by contact collecting activities that do a lot to explore what locations are reachable.)