Parks on the Air® Glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Activation | An activator will “activate” a park when they set up their station and make the required number of contacts (10 contacts). |
| Activity | Used to describe radio activities from a POTA park, regardless of whether or not the attempt meets the criteria to be considered an Activation |
| Activator | An activator is a licensed amateur radio operator who is in a park that is on POTA’s designated list and makes contacts with other licensed amateurs. |
| ADIF | Amateur Data Interchange Format used for log files. See adif.org for more details. |
| ATNO | “All Time New One” used to describe the first activation of a park. |
| Club/Group Activation | Activation where multiple operators use the same callsign over the air, i.e., “field day style,” either taking turns on one station or running multiple stations simultaneously. See Club activation guide |
| DX Entity | An entity as defined in ARRL DXCC award rule. E.g., KH6, KL7, and KP4 are distinct DX entities from other K/W/N/A, although they are all parts of the United States. Similarly, EA6, EA8, and EA9 are distinct entities from other EA. |
| Early Shift | Early Shift is the 6-hour period beginning at 02:00 UTC, +/- 1 hour for each 15 degrees of longitude that the park pin is offset from 0 degrees. For parks that cross multiple locations, the administrative reference unit (State, Province, etc.) pin is used instead, based on your activation location. Observance of time zones and daylight savings will make the exact local time vary from location to location. See Shifts Map for reference. The exact time can be calculated as (rounded to the nearest hour): 2 - (longitude of pin / 15) = UTC start of early shift |
| Hunter | A hunter is any licensed amateur radio operator who contacts an activator at a park, a hunter can also be another activator. Synonymous with chaser. |
| Land Repeater | For the purposes of Parks on the Air, any object bearing a repeater that is located below the Kármán line |
| Late Shift | Late Shift is the 8-hour period beginning at 18:00 UTC, +/- 1 hour for each 15 degrees of longitude that the park pin is offset from 0 degrees. For parks that cross multiple locations, the administrative reference unit (State, Province, etc.) pin is used instead, based on your activation location. Observance of time zones and daylight savings will make the exact local time vary from location to location. See Shifts Map for reference. The exact time can be calculated as (rounded to the nearest hour): 18 - (longitude of pin / 15) = UTC start of late shift |
| Location | A Program’s primary administrative subdivision based on the ISO-3166-2 standard whenever possible - eg: state, province, prefecture, etc. |
| LoTW | Logbook of the World, ARRL’s online QSO confirmation system, most widely used among award hunters. |
| New One | Used by a hunter for the first time they’ve contacted a park. eg.: “Thanks for the new one”. |
| Park | A park, forest, reservation, trail, scenic river, or other designated place in the POTA Park list and having a unique Park Reference. |
| Park to Park (P2P) | QSO between two Activators during the course of their Activations. It can also be used by an activator when calling another activator in a pileup. |
| Passing the Mic | A colloquialism used to describe the scenario where multiple individual operators gather and activate using the same radio by taking turns, i.e., “Passing the mic back and forth.” Not to be confused with a club/group activation. |
| POTA | Parks on the Air |
| Program | The top-level grouping of Parks, following the ISO-3166-2 list. |
| Reference | Park identifier, the code used by POTA to uniquely identify a Park. It comprises a prefix, a dash, and a number. For example, US-0001, CA-5082, etc. |
| Rove | The act of completing an Activation at a minimum number of Parks in a single UTC day. |
| Satellite Repeater | For the purposes of Parks on the Air, any object bearing a repeater that is located above the Kármán line |
| Support Your Parks (SYP) | Support Your Parks. Seasonal operating events held on the third full weekend of January, April, July, and October. |
