Pota Gridscout

Pota Gridscout helps you plan Parks on the Air (POTA) activations in Pennsylvania by mapping official reference points, activation boundaries, and places where two or more parks can be activated from a single setup location (2-fers, 3-fers, and larger combinations).

Not official. This is a research aid built from public GIS data and automated geometry matching. Always verify boundaries, access, and POTA rules on POTA.app and with land managers before operating.

How it works

POTA references — Every PA park/trail/entity from the POTA database is classified (state park, game land, national trail, etc.).
Activation geometry — Each reference is matched to a boundary polygon or trail buffer (100 ft / 30.5 m for scenic trails like the AT and NCT).
Overlap search — Pairs (and triples) of geometries are tested for true spatial overlap. A setup point must lie inside every participating activation zone.
Confidence scoring — Each candidate is rated high, medium, or low based on match quality, overlap size, and nearby OSM parking/trailheads (marked unverified).
Your review — Confirm, reject, or flag candidates locally in the browser. Shared rejections (call sign + name) are saved on the server for everyone on this instance.

Using the map

Sidebar list — Ranked 2-fer and 3-fer+ candidates. Click a row to zoom and open the review popup.
Click candidates — Opens a draggable review popup with setup coordinates, parking hints, and review controls.
Click any park — Blue POTA points, trail buffers, boundary polygons (when enabled), and other activation geometries are clickable even when they are not part of a multi-park candidate.
Boundaries — Navbar button toggles state park (green) and state game land (tan) boundary overlays matched to POTA references.
Pick coords — Navbar button for crosshair mode: hover for a live lat/lon preview, click to copy coordinates.
Layer switcher — Top-right control toggles individual overlays (trail centerlines, parking/trailheads, activation geometries, and more).
Filters — Narrow by confidence or review status. Hide rejected on map is off by default so community rejections stay visible.

Selected overlap — hatched activation zone

When you click a 2-fer or 3-fer+ candidate (on the map or in the sidebar), the shared overlap polygon switches to a diagonal hatched fill. That hatched area is the zone where you can set up one station and count activations for every park in the combination — anywhere inside the hatch should fall inside all participating activation geometries.

The hatch color matches the candidate’s confidence level. The setup dot gets a yellow ring when selected.

High confidence hatch

Green diagonal lines on a light green fill — strong boundary matches.

Medium confidence hatch

Gold lines on a light gold fill — usable overlap with some uncertainty.

Low confidence hatch

Red lines on a light red fill — verify carefully before relying on it.

3-fer+ hatch

Purple hatch for three-or-more park combinations with a true common intersection.

Before selection, overlaps appear as a flat translucent color (same palette, no hatch). Click empty map or close the popup to clear the hatch.

Park and game land boundaries

Press Boundaries in the top bar (button turns gray when active) to show official-style activation polygons for Pennsylvania state parks and state game lands. These come from the same matched geometry pipeline as overlap research — DCNR boundaries for parks, PAD-US for game lands — not hand-drawn shapes.

State parks — Green fill and outline (116 references).
State game lands — Tan/orange fill and outline (306 references).
Click a boundary — Opens a park popup with POTA ref, match method, and links.
Layer switcher — You can also toggle State park boundaries and State game land boundaries separately.

State park boundary

Green polygon — DCNR-matched state park activation zone.

State game land boundary

Tan polygon — PAD-US–matched game land activation zone.

Boundaries button (active)

Gray highlight on the navbar while both boundary layers are on.

Other reference types (state forests, historic sites, national trails, etc.) remain on the Activation geometries layer in the layer switcher, off by default.

Pick coords mode

Press Pick coords in the top bar (button turns cyan when active). The cursor becomes a crosshair.

Hover — The bar at the bottom of the map shows a live latitude, longitude preview (6 decimal places).
Click — Copies lat, lon to your clipboard, drops a marker on the map, and updates the status line.
Click again — Moves the marker to a new point (only the latest click is kept).
Turn off — Press Pick coords again to return to normal candidate and park clicking; the marker is cleared.

Coord pick marker

Yellow dot with dark outline — last point you clicked in Pick coords mode.

Pick coords button (active)

Cyan highlight on the navbar button while coord mode is on.

Map layers

POTA points

Official POTA reference coordinate for each entity.

Trail buffers

100 ft buffer along national scenic trails (AT, NCT, etc.).

Trail centerlines

Source trail polylines (PASDA / national datasets).

Activation geometries

Forests, historic sites, and other non-park/game-land polygons (off by default).

State park boundaries

Toggled by the Boundaries button or layer switcher.

State game land boundaries

Toggled by the Boundaries button or layer switcher.

Community rejected

Red dashed overlap and red setup dot — stays on map unless you hide rejected locally.

Parking / trailheads

OpenStreetMap hints — always treat as unverified.

Candidate colors (unselected)

Before you click a candidate, overlap zones and setup dots use a flat fill in the confidence palette:

High

Strong boundary match and substantial overlap; fewer match warnings.

Medium

Usable overlap with some uncertainty (fuzzy name, point-in-polygon fallback, etc.).

Low

Dashed outline when unselected — weak match or small overlap; verify carefully.

3-fer+ (unselected)

Purple flat fill for three-or-more park combinations.

Sidebar badges

2-fer — Two-park overlap candidate.
3-fer+ — Three or more parks sharing one setup zone.
Overlap area is shown in km² and mi². Parking distances show m or km and miles.

Data sources

POTA.app — reference list and coordinates
PA DCNR — state park boundaries, roads, trails
PAD-US — public land boundaries (game lands, forests, etc.)
PASDA — PA trails and Appalachian Trail
OpenStreetMap — parking and trailhead planning hints only

Community rejections (shared)

When you click Submit rejection in the candidate popup, you must enter your call sign and name. The rejection is shared with everyone using this site. Rejected candidates stay on the map with a red dashed outline and dot so others can see what was ruled out and why.

Rejected overlaps: red dashed polygon, semi-transparent red fill
Rejected setup dots: red circle (still clickable)
Popup lists all community rejections with call sign, name, notes, and date
Your call sign is remembered in the sidebar and pre-fills the popup
Use Hide rejected on map in the sidebar only if you want to filter them out locally

Confirm, Needs research, and Save review without Submit rejection stay in your browser only (see Review workflow below).

Review workflow (local)

Personal review status (confirm, needs research, notes, setup-point override) is saved in your browser’s localStorage. Use Export review to back up your work, and Import review JSON to restore it on another machine. The review popup is draggable — grab the header bar to move it off the map. You can override the computed setup point with manual lat/lon when field checking finds a better spot.

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