Two Award Schemes
Colin Redwood G6MXL looks at two award schemes that share many common attributes: World-Wide Flora and Fauna (WWFF) & Parks on the Air (POTA).
I’ll be the first to admit that it seems strange that amateur radio has two award schemes that appear to credit almost identical activities based on operating and contacting stations located in areas of countryside such as national parks and nature reserves. So, what is the history?
WWFF
The oldest of these two award schemes is known as the World-Wide Flora and Fauna (WWFF). It started life in 2008, and was initiated by the Russian Robinson Club as World Flora and Fauna (WFF). In November 2012 the program was relaunched as WWFF. It covers all parts of the British Isles, most of Europe and many other parts of the world, including North America. https://wwff.co
POTA
Parks on the Air (POTA) started more recently in 2016 and has its roots in the USA. The scheme is slowly extending worldwide. At the time of writing, POTA includes 500 English, 189 Scottish and 103 Welsh ‘parks’, many of which have yet to be activated. POTA is yet to cover parks in Northern Ireland, Eire, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. In fact, many DXCC entities in Europe such as most of Scandinavia, the Baltic states, many Balkan states, some eastern European countries and Russia are not yet included in POTA. This is a pity as these are readily and frequently worked from the British Isles. Incidentally, when POTA refers to ‘parks’ it does not mean local councilowned recreation parks in towns and cities – places where you might see swings and slides, football pitches etc. https://parksontheair.com
Countryside Categories
It appears that these two award schemes have an almost identical scope in respect of the categories of countryside they cover. However, when I came to cross-check some local areas here in Dorset, I found a few differences.
For reasons I am not sure that I understand, four POTA parks did not feature on the WWFF list. I found the exercise helpful as I now have a crossreference for the local areas that I might activate, see Table 1. It also introduced me to the local qualifying areas of countryside. I’d suggest readers planning activations consider doing a similar exercise for their areas of interest. I should also point out that local names of areas may differ from the names used by WWFF and POTA.
Hunters and Activators
Both award schemes have the concept of hunters and activators. You can participate as a hunter from the comfort of your home shack, no matter where it is on the planet. As a hunter, you just need to register with the relevant website. Hunters don’t even need to submit their logs. Just make contacts with activators operating from National Parks and other relevant countryside. As the name suggests, an activator is someone who operates from designated areas of countryside. Activators submit logs from their operations in areas that are in the relevant award scheme, thereby crediting hunters. I suspect that many WWFF and POTA operators will be both hunters and activators.
Sign-Up
The process of signing-up so that you can be credited as a hunter and/or activator is straightforward for both POTA and WWFF. For POTA you initially sign up with your main callsign (G6MXL in my case). You then sign out and log in again and you can then add other callsigns that you use, G6MXL/P and GW6MXL/P in my case, Fig. 1. For WWFF the signing-up process is similar except for the sequence that information is requested Fig. 2.
Information
For most areas, the WWFF and POTA databases provide plenty of information, although I did notice a few inaccuracies in the POTA database, which were promptly corrected when I advised the relevant POTA contact.
References
WWFF references are made up of the ITU prefix and a unique identifying number. For example, Durlston Country Park, a national nature reserve in Dorset, GFF-0376. The same park in the POTA scheme is G-0187. The WWFF reference for the Snowdonia National Park in Wales is GWFF-0074, with
the equivalent POTA reference being GW0001.
There are some instances where, for example, a nature reserve is located in a national park. For WWFF purposes you can only operate using one reference at a time. POTA permits the use of multiple references simultaneously.
Preparing to Activate
If you are thinking of activating a WWFF or POTA reference, you’ll need to do a little research first. You’ll need to find a map that clearly shows the extent of the area of countryside in question, so that you can choose where to operate from. Most of the areas will have maps on the internet showing their boundaries. You’ll often find maps at the entrance or throughout the area in question, Fig. 3. Having set up your station, you call CQ WWFF or CQ POTA, or just CQ and work stations, making sure that you keep an accurate log.
Equipment
There are no WWFF or POTA specific rules regarding what equipment may or may not be used. However, it is expected that park activators consider other users of the park, so a noisy generator in the most tranquil spot is not the most appropriate source of power. Otherwise, you’ll probably want to use lightweight or portable equipment, battery powered in many cases. SOTA and HEMA activators will already be suitably equipped.
Getting There
Unlike awards such as Summits on the Air (SOTA) and HEMA, there is no requirement to get to the operating location by foot. It is perfectly OK to operate from a vehicle. In fact, it is quite possible to operate from a building or even your home if it is located in a WWFF or POTA area. You could find that in many cases a SOTA or HEMA activation also counts as a WWFF and POTA activation. If you join in a Worked All Britain (WAB) net, you could also be exchanging your WAB square with those you contact. The WWFF database helpfully provides WAB references for some UK areas.
If that’s not enough, you might also find that a favourite VHF contest site is in a WWFF and POTA area!
Operating in an Area
With both schemes, you can operate anywhere in an area limited by the local bylaws, rules etc. of the area. Just because you want to activate an area, doesn’t give you any more rights than any member of the public who wishes to have a walk there. For example, you can’t operate in any part of the area that is closed to the general public, and you mustn’t block footpaths, rights of way or harm the wildlife and environment etc.
You can operate from a tent, a bench or any other way that suits you provided that you comply with the local bylaws and similar. You can operate from a vehicle, which means that there is no need to climb to the top of hills or mountains. This makes WWFF and POTA very accessible to those with disabilities or no longer as agile as they once were. It also enables operation in inclement weather.
Making Contacts
You don’t have to exchange any specific information for a contact to be valid for WWFF or POTA. The minimum information to be logged is just date and time (UTC), callsign worked, band, mode, report sent and report received. If you are looking to make some Park-to-Park contacts, then it makes sense to record the other activator’s park reference.
Contacts via repeaters, IRLP, remote stations and EchoLink are not valid for WWFF purposes. POTA allows the use of repeaters to announce your arrival, but not to make contacts towards the awards.
WWFF Activation
To gain a WWFF activation credit, you’ll need to make at least 44 QSOs from the same area of countryside. The 44 QSOs can be accrued over multiple outings. So, for example if you activate a WWFF reference area today and make 30 QSOs, you could return on another day and make a further 14 or more QSOs, making 44 QSOs in total, and thus qualify as an activator of the WWFF area.
POTA Activation
For a POTA operation to be counted as an activation, at least ten QSOs need to have
been made on the same day within a period between 0000 and 2359UTC. A hunter can still claim credit even if you’ve made just a single contact, so it is good practice to submit a log every time you operate from a park, even if you didn’t make ten QSOs. POTA gives additional credits for ‘Late Shift’ contacts made after dusk or in the dark.
Logs
Both award schemes accept logs submitted in .adi format. Almost all computer logging programs have a facility to export .adi files as do many datamode programs such as Fldigi, WSJT-X and MTTY. In addition, the WWFF award scheme also accepts logs in a prescribed .csv format.
WWFF Logs
For WWFF, logs are submitted to the relevant National Coordinator or Log Manager who in turn will upload the log to Logsearch. The log file should be named in the format :
callsign@referenceYYYYMMDD.adi
The WWFF Log Manager for Great Britain is old friend of PW
The email address is
logs@gxff.uk
For Eire the National Coordinator and Log Manager is
qrz@m0yma.uk
POTA Logs
For POTA, logs must be named correctly and sent to the relevant ‘manager’ according to the prefix number of your callsign. The file name format is Kx@parksontheair.com
where ‘x’ is the number in your callsign prefix. If you have an intermediate licence, you should ignore the leading 2. So 2E1ABC should send to K1@parkrsontheair.com
I was pleased to find my first log was accepted with no problems. Note that it can take up to 48 hours for logs to be credited as the process is not fully automated. You should also make a point of emailing your log, no matter how many QSOs you have made, so that hunters can claim their credits.
Old Contacts
WWFF allows contacts as far back as 1 July 2008 to be uploaded. If you have contacts that you made from a park before joining POTA, you can submit your log after you have joined up. I was pleased to find that the whole of the Isles of Scilly is part of an area of outstanding natural beauty, so I could load my log from my activity in 2018 as POTA G-0347 (Isles of Scilly), which I had previously uploaded to WWFF. I also found a number of contest logs that I could potentially upload from entries made from qualifying countryside.
Claiming Awards
You can claim awards via the WWFF and POTA websites. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my contacts over the years qualified me for a WWFF Hunter certificate for working WWFF activators in seven European DXCC entities, Fig. 4.
Videos
There are several videos that can be accessed from the POTA website. I found them quite helpful in getting an understanding of the principles of POTA. There are numerous other videos on YouTube depicting various activations.
Conclusions
Both WWFF and POTA provide award schemes that encourage operation from the many areas of designated countryside without the need to operate from hill and mountain tops or the need to arrive on foot or cycle. Being able to operate from a vehicle makes them particularly attractive options for those wanting to get out of the house and ‘play radio’ during the winter months.