The Daily Ham

Combine POTA With State QSO Parties for Double the Fun Spring is here, which means State QSO Party season is in full swing. If you�re already a POTA activator, you�re sitting on an opportunity most hams overlook: running your park activation during a State QSO Party and banking contacts toward both programs at the same time. I did this three times last month and ended up with my highest single-day contact totals of the year. Here�s how the combo works, why it�s so effective, and what tripped me up along the way. Why State QSO Parties Are Perfect for POTA Unlike big-gun contests like Sweepstakes or CQ WW, State QSO Parties are relaxed. Multipliers are counties, which means operators are actively hunting stations in uncommon locations. That�s you, sitting in a park in some rural county nobody else is transmitting from. The dynamics line up naturally. QSO Party participants want to find you because you�re a county multiplier. POTA hunters want to find you because you�re an act...

World Amateur Radio Day just wrapped up yesterday, and if your weekend looked anything like mine, you spent it on the air. Between the WARD celebration and the Texas State Parks On The Air contest running through today, April has turned into one of those months where every ham with a portable rig is out in a park somewhere. And that's great. Spring POTA season with Solar Cycle 25 still delivering SFI values around 150 is about as good as it gets. But here's the thing I keep running into: making contacts in the field is the easy part. It's what happens after you pack up the antenna that gets messy. The In-Field Problem Is Solved Let's give credit where it's due. The portable logging scene in 2026 is solid. Ham2K PoLo won the Amateur Radio Software Award for good reason — it's fast, clean, and handles park references without any fuss. HAMRS has been the go-to for years and still works well for straightforward POTA logging. Even QSL Buddy running as a PWA in ...

World Amateur Radio Day 2026: Get on the Air April 18 Every April 18, hams around the world fire up their rigs for World Amateur Radio Day � and this year might be the best one yet. Solar Cycle 25 is still cooperating, the bands are alive, and the ARRL's second annual Ham Radio Open House means there's never been a better excuse to set up somewhere public and make some noise. Whether you've been doing this for decades or just passed your Technician exam last month, here's how to make the most of April 18. What Is World Amateur Radio Day? WARD goes back to 1925, when the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) was founded in Paris. Every year on April 18, hams celebrate by getting on the air and making contacts. It's not a contest � there's no score, no pressure. Just a global celebration of the hobby. This year, the ARRL is pairing it with their Ham Radio Open House initiative. The idea is simple: clubs set up in public spaces, invite curious neighbor...

Right now � literally this week � the International Space Station is transmitting slow-scan TV images on amateur radio frequencies. You can receive them with a handheld radio, a free phone app, and about ten minutes of setup. No license required to listen. If you’ve ever wanted a reason to dust off that Baofeng or justify buying one, this is it. What’s Happening ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) runs periodic SSTV events where the ISS transmits commemorative images on VHF and UHF frequencies. This April, there are two overlapping events: Series 31 — April 10–14 on 437.550 MHz , Robot 36 mode PD120 event — April 11–16 on 145.800 MHz FM , PD120 mode, callsign RS0ISS The transmission cycle is roughly two minutes on, two minutes off. During a good overhead pass, you can catch one or two complete images. What You Actually Need The barrier to entry here is almost embarrassingly low: A VHF/UHF radio. Any dual-band handheld works. A ...

America250 WAS: Finish Your Worked All States Award in 2026 There's a running joke among WAS chasers: you'll work 45 states in six months, and then spend three years hunting the last five. Ask anyone who's finished the ARRL Worked All States award and they'll nod. The first 45 come from just showing up. The last 5 come from patience, planning, and a little luck. 2026 is a good year to finish. ARRL's America250 WAS event is running all year as part of their Year of the Club celebration, giving you extra ways to grab those stubborn states through W1AW/portable operations and affiliated club call signs. If WAS has been sitting in your "someday" pile, this is the year to close it out. Why WAS Is Still the Most Popular Ham Radio Award WAS is almost always a ham's first real award chase. It's simple on paper: work all 50 US states, get them confirmed, send the application to ARRL. There's no DX, no oceans, no exotic entities. Just 50 boxes to check....

I Tried Every POTA Logging App So You Don't Have To Spring is here, the bands are cooperating, and every park within a hundred miles is calling your name. But before you toss a radio and a wire antenna into your go-bag, you need to answer a question that somehow generates more debate than "which HF rig is best" � what are you going to log with? I've been activating parks for the better part of three years now, and I've burned through more logging setups than I care to admit. Paper logs that got rained on. Apps that crashed mid-pileup. Desktop software that required a PhD in configuration. So I figured it was time to lay out what I've actually used, what worked, and what didn't. The Old Guard: N3FJP and Log4OM N3FJP ACLog has been around forever, and POTA actually worked with the developer to create an official POTA template. It's straightforward, reliable, and if you're already running it as your main station log, the POTA workflow is pret...

Build a Complete POTA Station for Under $500 Every week I see the same question in ham radio forums: "I just got my General — how much do I need to spend to do POTA?" The answers usually involve $2,000 Icom rigs and name-brand everything. But here's the thing — I've done dozens of activations with a setup that cost me less than $500 total, and I've had pile-ups on 20 meters just like the guys running a thousand watts from their trucks. If you're looking to get on the air from a park without emptying your savings account, here's exactly what I run and what it costs. The Radio: Xiegu G90 (~$450) Yes, this eats most of the budget. But hear me out — the G90 gives you 20 watts on HF, a built-in antenna tuner, and a detachable head for flexible mounting. At around $450 new, it's the cheapest HF rig I'd actually recommend for someone who wants to do more than QRP. The built-in tuner alone saves you $100-150 on an external one. If $450 is still s...

After Your POTA Activation: What To Do With Your Logs You hauled your rig to the park, set up the antenna, made your ten contacts, and packed everything back in the truck. The fun part is over. Now you're sitting at home staring at a log file and wondering — what actually happens next? Every POTA guide covers which radio to bring and which app to log with, but the post-activation workflow is where a lot of new activators get stuck. Upload to where? In what format? How do I know if my contacts confirmed? Let's walk through it. Step 1: Get Your ADIF File Whatever logging app you used in the field — HAMRS, Ham2K PoLo, N3FJP, or something else — the first thing you need is an ADIF export. ADIF (Amateur Data Interchange Format) is the universal file format that every logging system and award program understands. Most apps make this straightforward. In HAMRS, you tap Export and get a .adi file. Ham2K PoLo can email you the file or share it directly. If you were logging on p...

QSL Cards in 2026: Still Worth the Hassle? I made 47 contacts during a POTA activation last weekend. Good run — 20 meters was wide open thanks to the solar max we're riding right now. By Monday morning, I had exactly three LOTW confirmations and zero paper QSL cards in the mail. Sound familiar? The QSL system is one of those ham radio traditions that everybody participates in but nobody really loves. It's slow, fragmented, and in 2026, it somehow still requires you to juggle three different platforms just to prove you talked to somebody. So let's talk about what actually works, what doesn't, and whether there's a better way to handle confirmations without losing your mind. The QSL Landscape: Three Systems, None of Them Great If you're chasing any kind of award — DXCC, WAS, VUCC — you're stuck using at least one of these confirmation methods. Here's the honest breakdown. LOTW (Logbook of The World) is the gold standard for ARRL awards. Your con...

The Solar Cycle 25 Window Is Closing — Time to Chase DXCC If you've been putting off chasing DXCC, you're running out of excuses. Solar Cycle 25 peaked in late 2024 with sunspot numbers well above 200 — nearly double what forecasters predicted — and the HF bands have been on fire ever since. We're still riding the tail end of that peak right now in early 2026, but the decline is coming. Conditions this good won't roll around again for another 11 years. I finally got serious about DXCC last spring when 10 meters was opening to Japan from my modest dipole. If I can do it, you can too. Here's what I've learned about chasing entities, tracking progress, and picking the right tools for the job. Why Right Now Matters Solar Cycle 25 has been a gift. Even as we move past the official peak, solar flux values remain elevated enough that 10, 12, and 15 meters are still producing solid DX openings during daylight hours. Twenty meters is a workhorse around the clock....

POTA Logging Apps: What Actually Works in the Field April is here, and that means POTA season is hitting full stride. With the ARRL’s Ham Radio Open House running all month and World Amateur Radio Day on April 18, clubs everywhere are planning park activations. If you’re heading out — maybe for the first time — one question is going to hit you before you even key up: what am I logging with? I’ve tried pretty much everything at this point. Paper, phone apps, laptop software, even a spreadsheet once (don’t ask). Here’s what I’ve landed on after a couple years of activations, and what I think works best depending on how you operate. The Case for Paper (Yes, Really) There’s been some chatter lately about going back to paper logging during POTA and SOTA activations, and honestly, I get it. Paper doesn’t need a battery, doesn’t crash, and doesn’t glare in the sun. When you’re running QRP with a wire antenna in the wind, the last thing you want is another device to babysit. But here...

Turn a POTA Activation Into Your Club's Best Open House Demo April is here, and if your club hasn't figured out what to do for the ARRL Ham Radio Open House yet, I've got an idea that's worked really well for us: take your POTA activation public. World Amateur Radio Day falls on April 18 this year, and the ARRL is pushing clubs to set up public demos throughout the month. You could set up a table at the library with a 2m rig and some handouts — or you could show people what ham radio actually looks like in 2026 by running a POTA activation in a local park where people can watch you make contacts in real time. Why POTA Works Better Than a Shack Demo I've done both. The shack demo — where you invite people into a cramped radio room and try to explain what all the blinking lights do — gets polite nods and glazed eyes. The outdoor POTA demo? People actually stop and ask questions. There's something about seeing someone throw a wire into a tree, key up a ra...