How to make activations

This will be a short (don't count on it) review of the process of activating a BOTA Beach. When TEAM KK1TLS got started in BOTA, I was a fairly new ham and new to POTA and WWFF activating Parks, Wildlife Refuges, State Trails and such. Several of the State Parks we activated were also Beaches and Islands. When we found BOTA, we thought we might as well take advantage of the multiple programs. We now find ourselves activating State Parks, Beaches, US Islands, IOTA Islands, and Lighthouses all at the same time. We have now activated 138+ areas and it is getting more fun each time. Our favorite is sitting in the sand on a beach, on an Island, in front of a lighthouse.

Probably the most important beginning step is PLANNING! You need to research the beach you want to activate, see if it is listed on the BOTA website, plan a sponsorship of the beach if it is not, list the activation on the website and FaceBook page, and make sure you have the correct equipment. I'll add some links to help with some of those thing later. The first thing to do is to make sure you join the BeachesOnTheAir.com website. That is where you will find and list all the information to start and finish an activation.

To continue reading, please download the PDF file below.