Parks on the Air and Summits on the Air are award programs first and foremost — the outdoor operating is how you earn them. The operating side is covered in parks, summits and portable operating; this page is about what counts and what you get.
Two roles, two ladders
Both programs recognize you from either end of the contact:
- Activator — you are the one at the park or on the summit, calling CQ and giving out the reference.
- Hunter (POTA) or Chaser (SOTA) — you are at home working them. This is the part people overlook: you can chase every award in both programs without ever leaving the shack, and it is one of the best ways to fill a new band or a new state.
POTA
- Every registered park has a reference number (for example K-1234), and your logs are matched against the activator's automatically once both are uploaded — there are no QSL cards to chase.
- Ten valid contacts in a UTC day makes an activation of that park.
- Awards accumulate by contacts, by unique parks, and by repeat activations, with plaques and certificates at each threshold, plus endorsements by band and mode.
- Special activities — Support Your Parks weekends, late-shift and early-shift activations, and park-to-park contacts, which count for both operators at once.
- Because activations are announced and spotted in advance, POTA is the easiest way to arrange a contact deliberately rather than hoping — useful when you are chasing a specific state or a new band. See Worked All States.
SOTA
- Summits carry a reference and a point value scaled by height, and points count toward Mountain Goat (activator) and Shack Sloth (chaser) at 1,000 points.
- Activations must be self-powered on the final ascent — carried gear, no vehicle power — and contacts must be made from within the activation zone below the summit.
- Summit-to-summit contacts are their own award category and are prized.
- Because summits are often worked on VHF, on CW and at low power, SOTA overlaps heavily with QRP and CW and QRP awards.
Related programs
The same activator/chaser model now covers other things worth activating — islands, lighthouses, castles, beaches, mills, world flora and fauna sites. See other on-the-air programs.
Why these programs took over
They removed everything slow about awards chasing: no QSL cards, no fees, automatic log matching, instant online spotting, and a reason to be outside. They also produce enormous on-air activity on weekday afternoons, which is exactly the demonstrated band use that keeps allocations defensible — see organizations.
Logging for both is covered in logging and QSLs.