POTA Begins Park Prefix Updates
Update 3/25/2024
China is once again participating in the POTA program after resolving a simple misunderstanding due to language barriers.
In an effort to reorganize the Parks on the Air (POTA) database in a way that meets ISO standards, POTA has begun rolling out changes to the way park entities are prefixed. Beginning with the United States and Puerto Rico, parks previously coded with a K prefix will now be listed with a US prefix. For example, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail was previously K-4556 and is now US-4556. Additional prefixes will be updated in the coming days.
While the changes are largely seamless from a systems perspective, activators will be required to use the new prefixes when uploading logs. Logging software supporting POTA will also need to be adjusted.
From a political perspective, the prefix change has resulted in China choosing to no longer participate in the POTA program due to the ISO3166-2 standard recognizing Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan as top-level entities.
The timeline of prefix changes may be viewed here.
Source: Parks on the Air open_in_new
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