Two of the fastest-growing activities in amateur radio have nothing to do with big antennas or high power — they’re about getting outside. Summits on the Air (SOTA) and Parks on the Air (POTA) both reward operators for setting up a station somewhere other than the shack, and both have a strong, active following across the UK and Ireland.
What is SOTA?
SOTA has been running since 2002 and covers thousands of officially recognised summits worldwide, each assigned a reference and a points value based on its height. The UK and Ireland are split into SOTA “associations” — England is G (with regional sub-areas such as G/LD for the Lake District), Wales is GW, Scotland is GM, and Northern Ireland and the Republic have their own associations too, GI and EI, with plenty of qualifying summits in the Mournes, the Sperrins and further afield.
There are two roles. An activator physically climbs the summit, sets up a station within the defined activation zone (usually within 25m of vertical height below the true summit), and makes contacts. A chaser works activators from home or anywhere else — no climbing required. Both earn points; activators generally earn more, and there are bonus points for winter activations.
What is POTA?
Parks on the Air is younger (it grew out of an ARRL National Parks event in 2016) but has exploded in popularity because the bar to entry is lower: no hill required, just a qualifying park, forest, AONB, nature reserve or similar protected area, each with its own reference number. An activation counts once you log at least ten contacts from within the park boundary. The programme is genuinely global now, and the UK and Ireland have hundreds of qualifying sites, from National Trust land to country parks and coastal reserves.
Activator or chaser — where to start
Chasing is the easiest way in: no travel, no gear beyond what you already run at home, and it’s a good way to learn the spotting tools and get a feel for how activations sound on the air. When you’re ready to activate, you don’t need a mountain-worthy rig — a modest HF or VHF/UHF setup you can carry is enough. Many activators start with local, easy-access POTA sites before graduating to SOTA summits.
Spotting and alerting
Both programmes rely on activators posting where and when they’ll be on air. For SOTA that’s SOTAwatch (sotawatch.sota.org.uk); for POTA it’s the spots page at pota.app. Most activators self-spot from the field via a smartphone app once they’re set up, and the Reverse Beacon Network often picks up CW and FT8 activity automatically. Chasers watch these feeds (or apps like SOTA Goat) to know who’s currently active and on what frequency.
Basic gear for an activation
- Radio: a QRP HF rig or a dual-band VHF/UHF handheld — see our portable operating guide for specific options.
- Antenna: something light and quick to deploy — an end-fed half-wave wire and a lightweight mast or a convenient tree is the classic SOTA/POTA combination for HF.
- Power: a small LiFePO4 pack is standard for QRP work; a handheld’s own battery is fine for VHF/UHF-only activations.
- Logging: a notebook works, or a phone app (SOTA Goat, HAMRS) that can also handle self-spotting.
A note on access and safety
Respect land access rules — open-access land in Scotland is more permissive than much of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, so check before you go, especially on privately owned or sensitive sites. Tell someone your plan on a genuine hill walk, check the weather, and follow Leave No Trace principles: pack out what you bring in, and avoid guy lines or pegs on sensitive ground.
Both programmes are free to join and require no special licence beyond your normal amateur licence. Log a chase or two this week, and an activation is a very natural next step.