Your faithful Nosey News Hawk Ada is back, skulking around Facebook, Discord, QRZ, and the darker corners of the internet to bring you the latest roves, rookie victories, gear temptations, and glorious fails from the POTA universe. Pour a mug of something warm, thaw out those fingers, and let’s see who played radio this week.
QTH: Hell
The crew at Akademisk Radioklubb LA1K (featured in the title pic) dusted off a twisted little club tradition: sending Feld Hell from Hell—literally—from POTA reference NO-1666 “Hell” in Norway. Their blog write-up “QTH: Hell” recaps the Halloween outing, revives the Feld Hell mode in perfect spooky style, and gives us all something to aspire to the next time we’re trying to come up with a memorable activation theme.
Source: https://www.la1k.no/2025/11/12/qth-hell/
A New POTA Awards Program
POTA News & Reviews is cooking up a brand-new POTA awards program launching January 1, 2026. The community is actively hashing out award ideas and rules over on the POTA Forum, including annual-reset classics like “Hunted All States” and more off-the-wall concepts (looking at you, “Worked WB0RLJ Every Day for a Month Award”). If you’ve got strong opinions on what should hang on people’s shack walls, now’s the time to weigh in.
Discussion: https://forums.pota.review
Put POTA on Your Calendar—Literally
PN&R also rolled out a POTA event calendar with both RSS and iCal feeds, so you can see upcoming POTA activity directly on your desktop or phone calendar. It lives on the POTA News & Reviews forums, and they’re inviting clubs and ops to send upcoming events to events@pota.news so the whole community can plan ahead.
Calendar: https://forums.pota.review/calendar
NX9T’s Interstate POTA Road Diet: Carb Up, Call CQ
Jeff NX9T checked in after Day 1 of a multi-state rove, having bagged five new-to-him parks across Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio while still needing to “make some mileage.” Day 2 promised eight more parks in Ohio and Indiana, fueled by proper breakfast carb loading and a call to the hunters to come along for the ride.
Source: Facebook/POTA
Storm of the Year!
The sun put on quite a run this past week, culminating in a series of X-class flares and associated CMEs that lit up the skies as far south as Florida. Propagation was pretty crazy, with quite a few brave souls smearing on RayBan and hoping for the best. Perry W1GRD snagged his first Polish POTA contact, Marco SP9BIJ in SP/BZ-048.
Five WWFF, Five POTA, One Flat Tire in Turkey
From Turkey, Atalay Avcılar reported an epic 12-hour adventure: 5 WWFF, 5 POTA parks, 263 QSOs, and 373 km on the odometer. The day started pre-dawn at İğneada Longoz Forests National Park (TAFF-0037, TR-0056), where a hiss from a flat tire tried to derail things; Atalay cranked out 44 QSOs, found a tire shop, and kept the rove rolling through fog, heavy rain, and multiple stops along the Black Sea coast.
Source: Facebook/POTA
Rookie Heads to the Park Solo, Comes Home with 32 Contacts
Stephen Salter KJ5MQE headed out intending to do their first solo activation, only to bump into the Irving Amateur Radio Club already set up. The club invited them onto the station, and they walked away with 32 contacts on 15m and a big grin—plus a reminder that sometimes the best POTA elmer is the club you stumble into at the park.
Source: Facebook/POTA
Yes, It Really Was That Cold: W2PE from the USS Little Rock
From the deck of USS Little Rock at US-6532 Erie Canalway / Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park, K2EAG reported operating as W2PE with the note: “Yes, it was this cold today!” Photos show a bundled-up op, icy conditions, and a very photogenic ship activating as the backdrop for some frosty canalway contacts.
Source: Facebook/POTA
Hawaii at Last!
From Tennessee, KI5QCH celebrated finally logging Hawaii, thanking WA7FLY for activating park US-12062 and making a long-sought contact happen. After working many parts of the world, Hawaii had been the elusive one, and one well-timed POTA activation closed the loop.
Source: Facebook/POTA
Plotting the Path to Paradise: VOACAP from FN31 to Hilo
On the POTA Discord #pota-digital-modes channel, Paul W7PFB shared a VOACAP propagation plot from FN31co to Hilo for 100 W SSB—useful for any mode when conditions are good. The chart shows which bands to favor at which UTC hours if you’re chasing Hawaii and don’t want to leave it to luck.
Source: POTA Discord – #pota-digital-modes
W5ESE Backpacking QRP at South Llano River
On QRZ, W5ESE reported a carefully planned backpacking trip to South Llano River State Park (US-3057) in Texas. With a 27 lb base pack, a 40 m EFHW on a 20′ carbon fiber mast, and QRP gear, he hiked about 1½ miles into the primitive camping area and ran two activations: 20m on Saturday (including SKCC fun) and 40m on Sunday, slowly but surely reaching the 10-contact mark.
Source: QRZ Forums – How did YOU radio today? POTA/SOTA edition!
Ultimate POTA Station Goals
A lively QRZ thread titled “What is YOUR ultimate POTA setup?” continues to showcase some wildly capable field stations, including one photo-heavy rig with multiple antennas, satellite capability, and APRS all in one portable package. It’s equal parts inspiration and wallet danger for anyone planning their next “just a small upgrade.”
Source: QRZ Forums – What is YOUR ultimate POTA setup?
Little Dude, Big Job: VE6LK Reviews the ‘Little Dude 6’ Mast
In the #pota-gear channel on POTA Discord, VE6LK pointed everyone to his one-minute “Kit Basics” review of the Little Dude 6 carbon fiber mast. He calls it “very cool,” “nice and firm along the length,” and “super well-built”—exactly the sort of thing that makes your existing mast suddenly feel inadequate.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSdihbiz8rs
Win a Snack for Being #100
Feeling the pressure from all the creative POTA QSL cards, KI5GTR in Arkansas decided to up his game: on his activations, the 100th contact will get a snack in the mail. He adds, with a grin, that he doesn’t want everybody fighting over that 100th QSO—though frankly, this sounds like excellent motivation to hunt him down in the log.
Source: Facebook/POTA
N9RDX Rings the Bell on a 2025 Goal
In a short but satisfying post, Marvin N9RDX simply announced, “I reached one of my goals for this year,” sparking a wave of reactions from the POTA community. 5,000 parks hunted. That is a lot of parks! And always that little nudge, right? “Next award at 5,500 parks”. Congrats, Marvin!
Source: Facebook
Corrections Corner: Ada vs. the SOTA Points
In PN&R’s own meta-thread about building this newsletter with AI, one contributor objected that Ada (ahem) had short-changed their Trans-Atlantic S2S event: they didn’t just have two QSOs; they had five, enough for a valid SOTA activation and that precious activator point. The post goes on to recount both a failed icy attempt on Sargent Mountain and the determination to return with a lighter vertical and better plan—perfect “POTA & SOTA humility” content.
Source: https://forums.pota.review/t/building-the-this-week-in-pota-newsletter-with-ai/41/5
That’s the wrap for this week’s wanderings, roves, snacks, flats, and frozen fingers.
If you see a story you think the Nosey News Hawk should stalk next week, send your tips, screenshots, or park gossip to tips@pota.news and we’ll keep the RF rolling!
