Technician POTA Event, Saturday, Nov. 20

The Boston Amateur Radio Club will host a Parks on the Air (POTA) event with a special invitation to Technician license holders and new hams on November 20th, 2021, from 10:30 to 4:00. The event will take place in the Blue Hills Reservation in Milton at the Mount Chickatawbut summit. We will attempt to “activate” the park according to POTA rules using VHF, UHF, and the Technician segments of the HF bands.

Bring your handheld and any other radio you want to try out on the summit. The club will provide some power sources and a few different antennas for you to experiment with. You will also have an opportunity to operate on six and ten meters. Brendan, NW1S, and Joe, NV1W, will be on hand to answer questions and help introduce you to amateur radio in the great outdoors. There will even be prizes for accomplishments things like most contacts made, farthest contact, and most Technician bands used. Afterwards there will be a social event of food and drinks.

You may park at a lower parking lot and hike the short path to the summit. The Boston Amateur Radio club is attempting to organize a car to bring those who cannot or wish to not walk the distance to the summit. Further information on the Blue Hills can be found at https://friendsofthebluehills.org.

Please email Brendan, NW1S at nw1s.brendan@gmail.com if you’re planning to attend. Final information on the event will be published here as the event approaches.

Join us at the 110 Grill in Braintree afterwards for some food and drinks! Please include in your email if you will be joining us at 110 Grill so we can make a proper reservation.

We look forward to seeing you at the summit!

Updates on the Tech POTA Day can be found at BARC.org, and @W1BOS on Facebook and Twitter.

Do you want to participate without making the trek up Mount Chickatawbut? You can hunt our operators on Saturday. Look for us on the POTA spot page, the @W1BOS Twitter or on the National Calling Frequencies. We invite your club to get on the Air with our Technicians and test out your VHF and UHF Equipment.

2021 Autumn New England Parks on the Air Day

Our friends down at the K1USN club are organizing an Autumn New England Parks on the Air (POTA) Day from 0000 UTC to 2359 UTC on Saturday, October 16 (8 pm Friday–7:59 pm Saturday). From their newsletter:

The goal would be to have one group/individual at each site to enable the activation of as many NE POTA’s as possible.

Officially listed POTA’s from throughout New England would be required. Maps and lists can be found here — parksontheair.com.

Since this is not a “contest”, official log submissions will not be required, but summaries would be encouraged. [NV1W comment: I think it’s polite to submit logs to the POTA website so hunters get credit.] A post-event link will be available at www.k1usn.com.

Remember that this will be a New England wide event so folks that attend Nearfest on Saturday, Oct 16th in Deerfield, NH may wish to activate a NH park on the way home.

Okay… Who is interested in jumping onboard the NE Autumn POTA event?

BTW, Bob, WC1N, has created a spreadsheet so that we can keep track of individuals/clubs as they sign on. You can sign up here — http://www.ilovepota.com/index.php.