Parks on the Air® Events
Official Events
Curious about our “Official” Parks on the Air events? Currently POTA has 5 official events throughout the year, as detailed below.
Events start at 00:00:00 UTC and end 23:59:59 UTC on the days listed:
New Year’s Week
First full week of the new year. January 1-7, 2026
Casual contacts to help ring in the new year!
Support Your Parks
This event happens seasonally, on the 3rd full weekend of the month (Saturday & Sunday UTC). These are ‘activity weekends’ where the main purpose is to get out in the parks, and have as much fun as possible.
- Winter - 3rd Full Weekend of January. January 17-18, 2026
- Spring - 3rd Full Weekend of April. April 18-19, 2026
- Summer - 3rd Full Weekend of July. July 18-19, 2026
- Autumn - 3rd Full Weekend of October. October 18-19, 2025
Un-official Events
Parks on the Air is not affiliated with any other amateur radio activities, such as state park QSO parties, and meet-ups.
Fans of portable operations are welcome to participate in such events, but should contact the respective event organizers for details.
Please remember the POTA logo is copyrighted and only authorized to be used per guidelines listed in the graphics assets section of the resources page.
Plaque Events
Starting in 2018, Parks on the Air held a special awards event where participants, based on activity, were eligible to win plaques. This was an annual 48 hour operating event which took place on the first weekend in June.
The plaque event was retired in 2023.
Results of previous plaque events are available here on the POTA docs site.