Amanda Taylor

I use PoLo for logging and love how it uses the device's GPS to automatically select the closest park reference. For spotting though, I just use the official POTA spotting website at pota.app - this is the official spotting website for POTA. Simple and reliable.

congrats on the first one, that feeling of getting your 10 and knowing you qualified the park is pretty great isnt it. 35 minutes on a first activation with a wire in a tree is honestly solid, dont undersell it.
on the spotting question -- yeah most activators self spot, its kind of expected now that the app is so easy to use. the pile up thing is totally normal, especially if you spotted on a busy band during decent conditions. some people do rely on RBN or POTA spots from hunters who hear you calling CQ, but that can take a while and you might sit there calling for 20 minutes before anyone finds you, self spotting is just way more efficient especially when youre trying to get your 10 and get out.
putting your frequency in the spot is a good habit if youre on a non-standard frequency or if youre doing something like running FT8 or CW, for SSB on 40 most hunters will just look at the spot and tune around a little anyway. i usually include it just to save people the trouble. one thing i will say -- if you move frequency for whatever reason, re-spot yourself, nothing more frustrating as a hunter than going to a spot and finding nobody there.

yeah im planning on going, my buddy Dave (K8something i forget his suffix) has a table reserved and hes selling off a ton of his old VHF gear so ill be helping him unload stuff in the morning. usually get there around 6:30 before the crowds hit the good junk. hit me up if you want to meet at the main entrance around 8 or so

im kind of in the same boat as you and just started a few weeks ago, so take this for what its worth. i use the morse code ninja stuff on youtube, he has videos that go through each character and also these word practice videos which are actually really helpful once you know a few letters. i also found just having it on in the background while im doing other stuff helps a little but probably not as much as sitting down and actually focusing on it lol
one thing i heard is dont try to learn too many letters at once, like five or six max before you really drill them. anyway still a work in progress for me too

okay so first thing, no you dont need to know morse code anymore, they dropped that requirement years ago so dont let that scare you off. the technician exam is definitely where you want to start, its 35 questions multiple choice and you need to get 26 right to pass. the question pool is public which is honestly the best part because you can literally study the exact questions that will be on the test.
most people use hamstudy.org or the hamradioprep site, i used hamstudy when i got my tech and it just drills you with practice questions until you start recognizing them. took me maybe two or three weeks of casual studying in the evenings and i passed no problem. some people do back to back tech and general but id say just get your tech first, get on the air, and then study for general when you feel ready. no rush honestly

I use PoLo for logging and love how it uses the device's GPS to automatically select the closest park reference. For spotting though, I just use the official POTA spotting website at pota.app - this is the official spotting website for POTA. Simple and reliable.

yeah i had the exact same issue when i first started, spent like two days thinking my radio was broken before someone told me about the tone. one thing i'll add is that some repeaters around here have gone to requiring a 1750 Hz burst tone to open up instead of CTCSS, which is more of a european thing but a few machines locally still use it. probably not your situation but worth knowing exists.
also on the etiquette side of things — once you do get it working, just remember to pause a second or two after you key up before you start talking. the repeater needs a moment to actually open and if you start right away the first word or two of what you say gets cut off. learned that one the hard way in front of like ten people on a net