For the last several years, my emphasis in amateur radio has been on activating parks for the National Parks on the Air (NPOTA), Parks on the Air® (POTA), and World Wide Flora & Fauna (WWFF) programs. While I maintain a station at home, it seems to be used surprisingly rarely.
That all changed this summer, thanks to a couple of surgeries—one planned, the other not so much. Suddenly, my portable operating adventures were put on hold, and I found myself spending a lot more time at home.
So, I decided it was time to flip the script and talk about transitioning from activating to hunting.
This won’t be an all-inclusive “how-to-do-it” type of article. Instead, I’ll be sharing thoughts on hunting from my perspective, along with some tips on setting up a home shack, finding the time to operate, and a few of the tools and utilities I’ve found useful along the way.
Of course, hunting from your perspective may be quite different. That’s one of the things I enjoy about amateur radio—there’s rarely only one way to do something. But perhaps you’ll pick up a tip or two that will help you.
The Home Shack
This section assumes that you may not already have a home station, so if you do, feel free to skip ahead.
The home shack is wherever you can set it up. One of my friends uses his kitchen table. It works very well for him, but I consider myself extremely blessed to have a dedicated room that serves as both my office and my ham shack.
Over the past 40-plus years, I’ve set up stations in basements and on above-ground floors of the house. I must say, though, that I much prefer having a window to the world. There’s just something about being able to see outside while I’m working or on the air.
At its most basic, all you really need for a ham shack is a place for the radio, a source of electricity, and a way to get your antenna wires outside. That last one can be a challenge, especially for apartment dwellers. Just ask another friend of mine about that!
Electricity is usually the easy part. You no longer need to have a dedicated electrical line run to your shack just to get on the air. Today’s radios are remarkably efficient, and a typical station can operate quite comfortably from a standard household circuit.
Of course, as your ham radio addiction—and it is an addiction—progresses, you may start thinking about adding an amplifier. Whether you’re talking about an HF amplifier or something for VHF/UHF, that’s when it might be time to have a conversation with your electrician about whether your existing electrical service can handle the additional load.
As for the location, the usual rules apply. You’ll want a spot that’s somewhat removed from the noise and activity of the house, but not so far removed that the kids start asking who that person is when you wander out of the shack at dinnertime.
Normal heating and cooling are also a must. As a teenager, my first ham shack was an uninsulated attic. You couldn’t pay me to do that again!
Finding the Time
After spending so much time at home, you might think that you’d have nothing but time to operate. But isn’t it funny how quickly free time slips away as life happens?
I know what you’re thinking: Just take all the time you used to spend activating parks and hunt instead.
Yeah, I found out real quick that it doesn’t work that way.
When you’re an activator, you generally have a specific goal. You pack up the radio, drive to a park, set up your station, make your contacts, tear everything down, and head home. There’s a beginning and an end to the operation.
Hunting from home is different. The radio is always there, waiting for you. You can sit down for five minutes, or you can spend the entire afternoon. And, somehow, those five minutes can disappear without you realizing it.
Amateur radio is one of the greatest ways I know to spend time, but life has a way of sneaking in. There are always chores to be done, projects waiting for attention, and someone who needs you to do something right now.
I’m still trying to find the right balance between the things I need to do and the things I want to do. But I’m also discovering that hunting can fit into those small pieces of available time in a way that activating sometimes can’t.
And that’s probably one of the biggest advantages of having a home station.
Plug-ins & Utilities
There are plenty of tools available to help keep track of your POTA activities. For more information about some of the tools I’ve used over the years, take a look at my November 2025 article, “Ham Radio Portable Operating Insights: Plug-Ins and Utilities for Your Logs.”
The pages I use most often when hunting are pretty simple:
1) POTA Spotting Page
This is where I go to see who’s out there and what parks are currently being activated. I like to use the table view for this page, but that is a personal choice. You can enable/change views by clicking the hamburger icon (three stacked lines) at the top left of most POTA pages. Then look for the slider marked “Prefer Table View.” This will be in the left sidebar.
2) POTA My Stats Page
This is where I keep an eye on my progress and see how I’m doing as I add new parks and contacts to my hunting totals.
3) My QRZ Page
On my QRZ page, I’ve added a plug-in from WD4DAN that gives me a nice display of my current progress, both as a hunter and as an activator. You can learn more about this by going to Dan’s page here. As with any plug-in and app, clicking on the donate button helps ensure that the developer continues to support the app. In Dan’s app, there is a “Buy me a coffee” link on his page for this purpose.
Beyond those pages, there are a ton of websites and utilities popping up that can help you track your progress as a hunter. There are probably more than I can keep track of, and I’m sure that by the time you read this, there will be a few more.
To be honest, though, I tend to stick with the tried-and-true POTA account. It works, and if I ever have a problem, help is only an email to the POTA help desk away.
I’ve also used Excel spreadsheets to keep track of my progress. There’s nothing wrong with that approach, and some people really enjoy building elaborate spreadsheets to track every possible statistic.
Me? I’d much rather be operating than updating spreadsheets.
And perhaps that’s the biggest lesson I’m learning as I transition from activator to hunter: The tools are there to help you enjoy the hobby. Don’t let keeping track of the hobby become more work than actually enjoying it.
That’s where hunting is easier than activating. POTA only requires activators to upload their logs—not hunters. I’m not saying that uploading logs is difficult; it’s actually a piece of cake. But when you’re hunting, your contacts automatically appear as the activators upload their logs, making the whole process even simpler.
After this summer, have I become a super hunter, ready to sell my gear that I use for activating? Not quite. I’m counting down the days until I can get back out on the road as an activator. I find hunting a lot of fun, but I find activating more fun.
With that, I’ll end this article and wish you good DX—and Good Hunting!
73 DE WG8X
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