When activating a park, us regular POTA activators are quite used to getting funny looks, strange stares, and my favorite, funny questions that people ask. So I thought why not document them so all can be as entertained by them as I have. Some of them are deliberately funny, and quite creative!
Funny Question #1
One of my earlier activations was in Mt. Gilead State Park, in Ohio, K-1979. Its a great park with rolling hills a very nice lake and great camping facilities. I like to pick my site at the end of the road / culdesac where traffic seems to be less. I was able to reserve a nice spot and was planning on working POTA the whole weekend, which I did. It was great.
However the one campsite next to me kept looking (staring..) at me and my 40 foot Spiderbeam mast all the while hearing those “funny beeps” us hams know as CW. One time when I was taking a break, he very cautiously wandered over and asked me what I was doing. As usual I explained the whole POTA thing to him but he had a confused look. then he said “No – I don’t believe you, you gotta be some secret government agent or something!”
No matter how hard I tried, he was convinced I was some secret government operative!
Funny Questions #2
Another encounter was in the spring time at Mohican State Park, Ohio at K-1977. One thing in Ohio that spring brings out are the mushroom hunters. This spring was no different. This time I was set up in the middle of the culdesac in the group camping area. Being as it was spring, and nobody was camping, doing so was no big deal. Sure enough, about an hour into my activation, a big pickup truck with an extended cab slowly drove around the culdesac – obviously checking me out.
Sure enough, the pickup pulls up beside me and the lady from the passenger side rolls down her window and says with a big smile “Hey… just wondering… is that setup some kind of magnetic mushroom locator?”
Needless to say, we both had a good laugh about that comment!
Funny Question #3
So a few years has passed since my first funny encounter at Mt. Gilead State Park, and I was getting around to working on my Kilo award from that park. It was unusually warm and sunny Saturday in February of 2023. We don’t get many of those here in Ohio, so of course you have to go and activate a park!
This time I had an interesting interaction with the local police. This wasn’t a park ranger, but an actual police officer. He pulls into the parking lot, goes past me, turns around, pulls in next to me and rolls his window down.
The following conversation ensues…
Officer: “Hey whacha doing?”
Me; “This is ham radio. I am doing a special event called Parks on the air. We hams go out to a park and other hams try to talk to us.”
Officer: “Cool! where have you talked to?”
Me: “All over the USA and a few into Europe”
Officer: “You’re not trying to talk to that Chinese balloon are you?”
Me: “Heck no! I’m Jamming it!”
Officer smiles: “Cool – carry on!”
So when activating a park, you never know what is going to happen, Including funny questions from non-hams. If you got a funny question from a non-ham, feel free to post it in the comments below so we all can have a laugh together.
POTA on! — Mike WB8ERJ
And I thought I was the only one accused of being a spy. But, the girl went to a Ranger and told him she thought that I was communicating with Russia using some kind of code. CW. The Ranger came over and I told him what I was doing. He asked if I had talked to Russia and I replied “No, but I wish I had. I need that country.”
Hahahahaha!
One cute response to the “spy” question is to reply “nyet”.
Ha ha! Nice!