Shacks On The Air anyone?

There has been an explosion of “On The Air” programs lately. I think SOTA (Summits On The Air) may have kick started the trend. To my mind SOTA remains the purest and best of them all. Although there are many drive-up summits, many others require strenuous effort to reach the “activation zone” on foot. Unfortunately, here in southern Ontario, we have very few high elevation points. Some peaks over 500 meters (1600 feet) can be found, but without the required “prominence” to qualify for the SOTA program. I visited one of the few SOTA peaks in my area once. It was hard to see why it was classified as a peak. The activation zone was a section of flat road. SOTA forbids activating from inside a vehicle so all an activator has to do is park at the side of the road, get out and play radio at the roadside. Piff!

Woof Woof

Some friends and I enjoy a leisurely CW rag chew once a week. We have one thing in common – mourning the loss of once-loved canine friends. At the end of every session we sign off with “woof”. So when I think of the World Wide Flora and Fauna program (WWFF) my mind interprets that as “Woof-Woof”.

WWFF is very popular in Europe and to a lesser extent in North America. If you hear a station signing off with “73 44” you will know it is a WWFF QSO in which 44 contacts are required to activate a park. Some of the “Woof-Woof” program rules are quite strict. If you are operating from inside multiple parks you can only claim one for your activation, unlike POTA where one set of contacts can qualify for multiple activations in the right location. SSB participants in xOTA programs greatly outnumber CW operators so, although getting 44 contacts by phone may be relatively easy, getting the same QSO count by CW is sometimes more challenging. Fortunately, QSO counts for operating sessions are cumulative so you can return to the same park as many times as is necessary to validate an activation.

POTA

From humble beginnings the Parks On The Air program has exploded to become a formidable force in amateur radio. Every day there are multiple parks being activated around the world. The required QSO count to qualify an activation is 10. Ten is much more attainable than 44, but even so, there are days when even that number is a challenge. For those of us who like to handicap our operations by using QRP, a day of poor propagation conditions can bury our signals in the noise. I have participated in POTA for the last few years and have had very few outings in which I experienced a “busted activation”, i.e. made fewer than 10 contacts. Some operators avoid busted activations by making HT to HT VHF simplex contacts with other hams in their group. If you think that’s a good idea there is a way to make every POTA session an effortless success regardless of propagation conditions.

POTA was predicated on the idea that fewer rules makes for better participation. That’s a good premise and has worked well making POTA the “elephant outside the room”. On the downside, even the few rules that are in place are not enforced. When I made the suggestion that a Park to Park contact should mean a contact between two different parks, POTA management politely suggested I should forget about it and just enjoy my own operations.

I read one account of an “activation” completed within 100 feet (30m) of a park boundary. That is valid for trails, but not for actual parks. I know that particular park and it does not qualify for the 100 feet rule. Generally, an operator and all their equipment must be completely within a park’s boundary. But perhaps, if that rule doesn’t work for you, “forget about it” and enjoy yourself.

The Drive-Thru activation

Unlike SOTA, POTA does not forbid operating from inside a vehicle. This has led to something variously called “Parking Lots On The Air (PLOTA)” or “Drive-Thru” activations. Mea Culpa; I have been guilty of this several times but I try to avoid drive-thru activations except in winter. In winter, brave Canadians don’t even button up our Mackinaws until it gets to 100 below, and we stir our coffee with our thumbs. It is only out of respect for our radio equipment that we would even consider operating from inside the comfort of a vehicle when the howling wind is blowing the snow horizontally and the mercury in the thermometer is frozen solid.

In summer many of us prefer to enjoy a hike or visit some of the spectacular scenery in our parks before or after a radio session. But for some diehard POTA activators, the name of the game is contacts – lots of ’em – then drive on to the next park where once again its eyes down, antennas up; no time to get out of the car. We each enjoy our hobby in our own way.

All the other OTAs

There are so many OTA programs these days it’s getting out of hand. How about TOTA? Did you think it means Towers On The Air? You are correct. But it also means Toilets On The Air. How about that; you can play radio while attending to your bodily functions. I know of one ham who takes his Handy-Talkie into the shower so he doesn’t miss any calls from his buddies; SHOTA anyone? TOTA also means Tiles On The Air. A Tile is a Maidenhead subsquare about 5km by 7km.

I am surprised nobody has thought of What 3 Words On The Air (W3WOTA?, WWWOTA?). W3W is a ridiculous (my opinion) method of dividing the world up into small squares each designated by three unique words. A lot of words are needed to identify all the world’s locations so some very rare and unusual words are employed. The English language is pronounced very differently around the world, and even within the United States. I met a very interesting fella who proudly came from “the South” once. He explained that the words “pin” and “pen” are pronounced exactly the same where he came from. Imagine trying to battle poor propagation conditions while interpreting a strange dialect relaying a rare and unusual word. When I posted on this topic some time ago I received a comment that W3W is universally accepted by emergency responders and we should just get used to it. Yay, let’s all get used to confusion and damn the torpedoes.

Don’t laugh please

Try not to titter when I introduce the next OTA. It is called HEMA and stands for “Humps Excluding Marilyns”. I believe it is a European program but I haven’t come across it on this side of the Atlantic. My first reaction was to wonder why Marilyn’s humps were excluded. I am sure HEMA has attracted a lot of jokes but it is actually a serious program. A “hump” is a summit with at least a 100 meter prominence, while a “marilyn” is a summit with at least a 150 meter prominence. So a hump excluding marilyns is a summit with a prominence between 100 and 150 meters. Robert Ripley might have made a TV episode about this one.

I’m OOTA here

I have become involved with one of the new OTAs and have filed my first couple of logs. It is called “Out On The Air (OOTA)“. As “the seasons go round and round and the painted ponies go up and down” (Joni Mitchell) the carousel of time begins to take its toll and I have less energy than I used to have. Just a few winters ago I would strap on snowshoes and haul a sled full of radio equipment across the deep and crisp and even white landscape to do an outdoor winter activation. No more. Maybe less inclination to join the OTA rat race too. Now I am content to set up in the sunshine and enjoy just being outdoors with my radio, and maybe a newly built antenna. If I make a few contacts I am satisfied. The great thing about OOTA is that there is really only one rule – just get out of the shack and make at least one contact. That’s just fine with me. If you do a POTA or “Woof Woof” activation, or you activate a hump that wasn’t Marilyn’s that counts too. Softly, softly, catchee monkey; relax, breathe; soak up the summer sun; enjoy life, it doesn’t last forever.

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