Log Your First POTA QSO

In 10 minutes from "never opened the app" to your first valid POTA Hunter QSO, including an award counter update.

Requirements

• HAM-Tools installed + license activated
• Your own call sign + locator entered in Settings → Station
• Internet connection for the POTA park database download (~80,000 parks, one-time ~15 MB)

Step 1 — Load the POTA Database

POTA parks are pulled from pota.app on first launch.

1. Open Settings → Data (⌘, → "Data" tab)
2. On the POTA Parks entry, click "Update"
3. Wait until the status pill shows "ready" with the park count

Auto-Refresh

After 14 days, HAM-Tools reminds you to refresh — new parks are added daily, so you don't want to keep it stale forever.

Step 2 — Create a POTA Log

1. Main window → left sidebar → click "Outdoor" — the program picker opens (POTA / SOTA / WWFF / BOTA)
2. Choose "POTA"
3. Toolbar button "+ Log" → a sheet opens
4. Fields:
   • Log name: POTA Hunter 2026 (or whatever you like)
   • Mode: Hunter (you're chasing Activator stations)
   • Station call: leave empty for the default from your Station settings, or enter a portable call
5. Click "Create" — the new log is now active

Step 3 — Find an Active Park

In the POTA sub-tab bar at the top you'll see the live spots of currently active POTA stations worldwide.

1. Set filters if you want: band filter at the bottom left, continent on the right
2. Double-click a row → the park reference is entered into the QSO form, and the frequency moves (if CAT is connected) to the spot frequency

Filter Note

DX cluster spots are filtered for POTA: only spots with a park reference in the comment (POTA: K-1234) show up here — the rest appear in the main DX cluster module.

Step 4 — Fill in the QSO Form

When the park is taken from the spot, most fields are already filled in:

Field	What happens
Call	From the spot
Frequency	From the spot (or CAT)
Band	Automatically from the frequency
Mode	From the spot (CAT mode overrides if connected)
Park ref	Extracted from the spot comment (e.g. K-1234)
RST	Default values per mode (59 / 599 / 599)
Name, QTH, locator	Auto-fill via QRZ/HamQTH after TAB in the call field

What you have to type: RST received (what you actually heard).

Tip: pressing TAB in the call field starts the lookup auto-fill immediately — you don't have to wait.

Step 5 — Log It

Press Return or click the "Log" button.

What happens behind the scenes:

1. The QSO is saved to Logs/<your-log>.htlog SQLite
2. A duplicate check runs (same call + band + mode → warning)
3. If real-time upload is active: QRZ.com / eQSL / Club Log / LoTW get the QSO immediately
4. The POTA Hunter counter for this park goes up by 1

Step 6 — Check Award Status

1. In the logbook, switch to the "Awards" tab at the top
2. You'll see:
   • DXCC / WAZ / WAS / Total across all logs
   • POTA Hunter counter: parks worked, parks confirmed (via LoTW/eQSL)
   • Worked vs. Confirmed

For the official POTA logbook you have to upload the QSO to pota.app/My Profile/Log — either via ADIF export from HAM-Tools (Toolbar → "Export → ADIF") or via LoTW confirmation sync.

Multi-Park Hopping (for Activators)

Activators who activate several parks on the same day need park hopping instead of Hunter mode. When creating a new log (Step 2), choose "Activator" and enter the planned parks:

1. Expand "More Parks/Summits/Refs"
2. Type a park ref or park name → live lookup shows matches
3. Add several parks — when you log a QSO you'll be asked which park is currently active
4. Multi-park split on export: on ADIF export the app writes a separate file per park (filename scheme HB9HJI@K-1234 20260518.adi, one MY_SIG_INFO each) — that's what pota.app requires. (Cabrillo isn't involved here — that's the contest export.)

Common Problems

Spot list is empty
→ Check the DX cluster connection (Settings → Cluster), at least one node must be active and connected.

Park ref isn't recognized
→ The spot comment must contain POTA: or POTA- or the format K-1234 directly. Some spotters type KFF-1234 (WWFF format) — that's treated in HAM-Tools as WWFF, not POTA.

"Park not found" on manual entry
→ Update the POTA DB (Settings → Data). If the park is new and not yet in the DB, you can still type the reference — an orange hint line shows that the ref isn't in the local DB; it's saved anyway, just without a name + locator suggestion (since 1.9.17).

Next Steps

• Set Up the LoTW Pipeline — so your POTA QSOs get confirmed too
• CAT Setup — read the frequency automatically instead of typing it
• POTA Module Docs — all features in detail