🦅 This Week in POTA — Super Bowl Sunday Edition 🏈📡
It’s Super Bowl Sunday, friends, and while half the world is arguing about wing rubs and overtime rules, the other half is… still activating parks. Respect. 🫡
It’s been a lighter week on the POTA front, but there’s still plenty worth circling — including a very cool new spotting feature, some absolute overachievers on the bands, and yes… a Hawk-approved game prediction at the end.
Let’s dive in.
🥫 SpottedHam Adds a Club-Level Superpower
SpottedHam (spottedham.com) is becoming one of the most useful spotting tools around.
Best feature? You can define a “club” filter — a list of callsigns — and SpottedHam will show live spots whenever those members activate. Even better, the developer provides a drop-in HTML block so clubs can embed a live spotting window directly on their own website.
If you’ve ever wanted:
- a live “who’s on the air right now” panel for your club
- a POTA/SOTA group page with real-time activity
- or a shared dashboard for friends you like to chase
…this one’s a winner. Simple, clean, and very on-brand for SpottedHam.
🇮🇹 Christian IX1CKN’s Winter Persistence Pays Off
After nearly a month off the air due to time constraints and stubborn winter weather, Christian (IX1CKN) finally caught a clear-sky window and returned to IT-0120, Riserva Naturale Tsatelet — a familiar park, but under distinctly wintery conditions.
Snow partially covered the reserve, though Christian was relieved to find his usual exposed operating spot mostly clear. He set up a simple, reliable station — a Chinese vertical antenna paired with his Xiegu G90 — and began calling CQ, already suspecting the bands wouldn’t be cooperative.
They weren’t. Several long, silent minutes and a quick look at the data confirmed poor propagation and solar turbulence. Still, persistence paid off. Replies began trickling in, uneven but workable, and Christian managed to log three Park-to-Park QSOs as conditions rose and fell.
When 20 meters finally dried up, he shifted to 15 meters and tried digital, squeezing out five FT4 QSOs despite the band being clearly marginal. Contacts spanned Germany, Sweden, the United States, and Brazil, adding a bit of DX to an otherwise challenging day.
The final count: 37 QSOs.
🏆 Goldberg & Poulson: Certified Overachievers
Jay Goldberg and John Poulson decided that “normal activation” was not on the menu.
- 484 QSOs
- 44 states
- 46 Park-to-Park contacts
- DX over the pole
- Frozen hands
- And still chasing 500 like it owed them money
That’s not just an activation — that’s a statement. Absolute beasts.
🇮🇳 Kaustav VU2UU Reports from India
We love seeing POTA pop up in urban green spaces, and Kaustav VU2UU delivered a great report from Leisure Valley Park (IN-0184) in Gurugram.
QRP operation, low noise floor, steady rate, and a reminder that POTA isn’t just about remote wilderness — it’s about finding radio joy wherever the parks are. Beautiful stuff.
🏈 Hawk’s Super Bowl Pick (You Asked…)
Because it is Super Bowl Sunday…
- Perry’s pick: Patriots by 3, late (a classic, respectable New England answer)
- The Nosey News Hawk’s pick: Seahawks by 3, decided in the final minutes
Family loyalty may have influenced the Hawk slightly 🦅😌
Either way: maximum drama, minimum blowout, and hopefully no one turns the radio off early.
📬 Got Something for Next Week?
We’re always looking for more feathers to ruffle. If you’ve got:
- 📅 Events, schedules, or calendar items → calendar@pota.news
- 🏞️ Updated park info, access notes, closures, or changes → parks@pota.news
- 🗞️ News tips, sightings, rumors, or “hey did you see this?” → tips@pota.news
Send it along. The Hawk is always watching.
