KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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What /P ops are you going to be doing in 2017?

Posted: 14 Feb 2017 01:37 PM PST
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kb6nu...m_medium=email

Ive written before about what hams who like to operate in the great
outdoors are going to be doing instead of National Parks on the Air. Some
states are going to be holding contests to encourage hams to operate from
their state parks. For example, theÂ*Florida State Parks on the Air will be
on the first Saturday in April, April 1, 2017 from 1400 UTC to 2200 UTC.
Its being run by the Lakeland Amateur Radio Club.
The Texas State Parks on the Air contest will be held the next weekend on
April 8-9, 2017. Its sponsor is the Lake Area Amateur Radio ClubÂ* (K5LRK).
The Ohio State Parks on the Air contest happens on September 9, 2017.
Here in Michigan, a group has started the Michigan State Parks on the Air
program. This is a bit more ambitious, in that its more like the ARRLs
National Parks on the Air. That is, its not just a contest, but rather an
operating event that will take place over a period of three years.
Unfortunately, this group still hasnt published any rules, nor do they have
a website yet. For information on MSPOTA, you have to go to their Facebook
page and glean what you can from there. One thing that confuses me is that
they have been saying that only some of the parks will be activated each of
the three years. So, if you dont happen to live near a park thats activated
when you want to operate there, youre kind of out of luck when it comes to
participating in MSPOTA.
Perhaps the closest you can come to the NPOTA experience is Parks on the
Air, which is the NA chapter of World-Wide Flora and Fauna. They have
cataloged nearly 3,500 national and state parks, as you can see in the map
below. As you can see, there are parks that you can activate in every
state, plus Puerto Rico.

Not only that, the rulesÂ*for Parks on the Air couldn’t be any simpler. The
rules fit on a single page and there are only six bullet points!Â*
As you can see from the map below, there are nearly two dozen parks that
are within an hours drive from my home in Ann Arbor. Im looking forward to
activating as many of them as I can this spring, summer, and fall.



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