Spotting POTA during Winter Field Day

[WA3LTJ]

If I do a combined Winter Field Day and POTA, can I spot my POTA station using the Internet? The WFD rules forbid Internet spotting. But, would it be OK if I spot myself for POTA and simply not put the QSO into the WFD log if I exchange my POTA park number? Thoughts, opinions?

 

[W3POT]

I was brought here from google, as I am curious about this myself. It's my understanding that activating a park is activating a park. You can activate without spotting yourself, through lack of cell service or not wanting a headset full of bees....   So to just activate the park, make the first 10+ QSO's in your pota log and the rest in the contest. If you wanted to spot yourself you could, but on a contest weekend you should have no problem getting a reply to a CQ.  I wouldn't see a problem with it ethically, you're not combining them or trying to circumvent anything. 

I was googling if my WFD contacts would count as a POTA after I realized I was camping in a recognized State Park for the entire weekend. To give my portable setup the full beans. So this is question-adjacent I think.

I mean, the whole ethos of both these events are to encourage outdoor operations, test equipment, enjoy all our lovely parks and promote the hobby in a fun and positive way to the community.  So as long as we're having fun, the rest is just numbers on a spreadsheet! The points are a nice token though.... 🙂

Very curious what others think of this.

 

 

[WA3LTJ]

I think one can do Winter FD (WFD) from a park and count every contact as a POTA contact. The stations that call you for WFD may not realize they are getting credit for a POTA contact, but there is nothing wrong with that. My question was about spotting because WFD has strict rules against 1) arranging contacts outside the contest hours, and 2) using the Internet for spotting.

I wonder now if you could ask a station to spot you. That request is over-the-air, even if the station spotting you uses the Internet.