What changed
POTA and SOTA awards — edited Aug 31, 2026 by Unknown editor
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Parks on the Air and Summits on the Air are award programs first and foremost — the outdoor operating
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is how you earn them. The operating side is covered in
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[parks, summits and portable operating](/wiki/operating/parks-and-summits); this page is about what
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counts and what you get.
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## Two roles, two ladders
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Both programs recognize you from either end of the contact:
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- **Activator** — you are the one at the park or on the summit, calling CQ and giving out the
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reference.
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- **Hunter** (POTA) or **Chaser** (SOTA) — you are at home working them. This is the part people
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overlook: you can chase every award in both programs without ever leaving the shack, and it is one
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of the best ways to fill a new band or a new state.
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## POTA
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- Every registered park has a **reference number** (for example K-1234), and your logs are matched
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against the activator's automatically once both are uploaded — there are **no QSL cards to chase**.
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- **Ten valid contacts** in a UTC day makes an **activation** of that park.
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- Awards accumulate by contacts, by unique parks, and by repeat activations, with plaques and
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certificates at each threshold, plus endorsements by band and mode.
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- **Special activities** — Support Your Parks weekends, late-shift and early-shift activations,
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and park-to-park contacts, which count for both operators at once.
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- Because activations are announced and spotted in advance, POTA is the easiest way to arrange a
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contact deliberately rather than hoping — useful when you are chasing a specific state or a new
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band. See [Worked All States](/wiki/contests-and-awards/worked-all-states).
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## SOTA
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- Summits carry a **reference and a point value** scaled by height, and points count toward
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**Mountain Goat** (activator) and **Shack Sloth** (chaser) at 1,000 points.
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- Activations must be **self-powered on the final ascent** — carried gear, no vehicle power — and
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contacts must be made from within the activation zone below the summit.
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- **Summit-to-summit** contacts are their own award category and are prized.
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- Because summits are often worked on VHF, on CW and at low power, SOTA overlaps heavily with
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[QRP](/wiki/operating/qrp) and [CW and QRP awards](/wiki/contests-and-awards/cw-and-qrp-awards).
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## Related programs
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The same activator/chaser model now covers other things worth activating — islands, lighthouses,
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castles, beaches, mills, world flora and fauna sites. See
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[other on-the-air programs](/wiki/operating/parks-and-summits/other-programs).
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## Why these programs took over
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They removed everything slow about awards chasing: no QSL cards, no fees, automatic log matching,
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instant online spotting, and a reason to be outside. They also produce enormous on-air activity on
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weekday afternoons, which is exactly the demonstrated band use that keeps allocations defensible —
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see [organizations](/wiki/organizations).
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Logging for both is covered in [logging and QSLs](/wiki/operating/logging-and-qsls).