POTA — Parks On The Air

POTA — Parks On The Air

Radio operations in Swiss parks and nature reserves — portable and in harmony with nature.

What is POTA?

Parks On The Air (POTA) is an international activation programme for radio amateurs: you set up your portable station in an officially recognised park or nature reserve and make QSOs from there. Every successfully activated site is recorded in the global POTA database.

POTA brings together two worlds: experiencing nature and portable radio operation. Anyone who activates a park is an ‘Activator’; anyone who makes QSOs with the activators from home is a ‘Hunter’ (or ‘Chaser’). Park-to-park QSOs (P2P) are particularly sought after — they count double for both sides.

POTA in Switzerland

The Swiss POTA administrator is Luis HB9HJU. Currently, around 150 HB9 parks are registered in the POTA system, along with the Swiss National Park and the regional and nature parks as defined by federal law. Through the ARO Field Atlas initiative, a further 1,000 or so potential activation sites have been identified.

New Swiss parks are being added on an ongoing basis. Luis accepts suggestions for new activation areas (including name and GPS coordinates) directly. There is a Swiss WhatsApp group for activators; sign up by email.

What are the rules?

  • At least 10 QSOs within a single UTC day are required for a valid activation. Multiple sessions at the same park on the same day count as a single activation.
  • You must operate with all your equipment within the park boundary and on publicly accessible land. For trails or river systems, 30.5 metres from the official boundary is sufficient.
  • All bands and modes permitted by your licence and the country are allowed — including satellite contacts.
  • Self-spotting is expressly encouraged (POTA spots on pota.app).
  • Prohibited: QSOs via land-based repeaters, fully automated QSOs, QSOs with your own call sign.
  • Multi-park activation: If several parks partially overlap, you can activate them simultaneously — but you must be located within the overlapping area of all the parks involved.
  • Hunters may operate from anywhere — including from home or on the move.

The full rules can be found at docs.pota.app/docs/rules.

Swiss park references and map

Every Swiss park has a reference in the format HB-NNNN. The interactive POTA map (pota.app) shows all parks worldwide — with filters by country, park type and activation status. Swiss parks are also linked to maps.ch, so you can view their boundaries, zones and access routes directly.

The ARO Field Atlas offers an alternative view of all three major activation programmes (POTA + SOTA + WWFF) on a single map — very useful for planning multiple activations, for example when a mountain peak lies within a nature park.

What do you need for your first activation?

  • A portable transceiver (e.g. KX2/KX3, FT-817ND/FT-818, IC-705), a rechargeable battery, an antenna (terminated dipole, vertical, or frame antenna) and a fibreglass mast or throw-out antenna
  • Create an account on the POTA database to upload your logs
  • Choose a park and post a prior announcement as an alert on pota.app — hunters will then know when and where you’ll be QRV
  • On site: Self-spotting via the app or browser (provided there is mobile network coverage)
  • At least 10 QSOs on one or more bands
  • After the activation: Upload your ADIF log to pota.app — the platform validates it automatically

Awards

POTA offers a comprehensive diploma program for activators, hunters and park-to-park specialists — ranging from simple beginner’s awards through to band-wise awards and global DX awards. Evaluation is carried out automatically based on the uploaded logs; QSL cards are not required.

Further links

Contact

Swiss POTA Administrator: Luis HB9HJU — ✉ hi8indialimaoscar@gmail.com. To join the Swiss POTA WhatsApp group or suggest new parks (name + GPS coordinates), please contact Luis directly.