Pennsylvania is fortunate to have an abundance and variety of POTA sites that allow activators to choose the style of POTA activations that they prefer. From urban to isolated, easy parking to rocky off-roading, crowded parks to quiet forest trails, you can make your activations as easy or as difficult as you want. There are even sites that can only be accessed on foot or via boat.
Beginning activators should consider PA State Parks first (see below) because they are numerous, generally easy to activate, with mostly benign park rangers.
This webpage describes common characteristics of groups of similar POTA sites in PA, and was written to augment the "comments" field of each park's official detail page found via pota.app. The following are the major categories, followed by each category description and resources:
The largest category of POTA sites in Pennsylvania are Game Lands. They are owned by the PA Game Commission primarily for hunting, trapping, and similar activities. These are separate from the extensive State Park and State Forest systems; recreational use (like ham radio) is secondary in Game Lands, and you can be cited for interfering with hunts, damaging trees, or violating many other rules intended to protect hunters and hunting.
We recommend staying in Game Lands' parking areas, wearing fluorescent orange (required 11/15-12/15), and staying out of Game Lands entirely in peak hunting seasons in the Fall. Note that most Game Land parking is unimproved, and you should check to be sure your vehicle can get to the lot and will not get stuck in mud or snow.
The map pin location for each Game Land was picked as being plausibly the best of official parking areas. However, typically there are many parking areas documented, and many Game Lands have multiple noncontiguous areas, so we recommend doing your own research because very few of the pinned locations were surveyed on-site.
Some marked locations may only be accessible by high-clearance off-road-capable vehicles or by boat. Some roads are only opened seasonally. Be sure you're actually on Game Lands property because most GLs border forested private property.
Resource: Official Game Lands page www.pgc.pa.gov/HuntTrap/StateGameLands/
Your best resource for finding Game Lands activation areas. You will find a link to a highly useful interactive map of all Game Lands and other managed areas, as well as a collection of static PDF maps for each GL.
In contrast to Game Lands, Pennsylvania's 120+ State Parks are primarily meant for general recreation, though some also allow limited hunting. They typically feature easily-accessible parking areas, and most include at least some comfort facilities. Many also offer serviced or primitive camping, and some also rent cabins. Fees are only charged for camping or swimming pools; State Parks do not charge a general entry fee, a luxury not enjoyed in most surrounding states. State Parks are managed by PA's Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), separate from the agency managing Game Lands.
New PA activators should consider state parks first, based on ease of use and generally chill attitudes of park rangers toward ham radio. Special permits should be sought for team activations and large setups, but permission generally isn't needed for one or two activators in a single vehicle with a typical vehicle-mounted or ground-mounted antenna. Attitudes towards ropes in trees and stakes in the ground can vary, so we recommend asking about that setup first.
POTA map pins were placed where it is believed the main parking lot is located, though many State Parks have multiple parking locations. As always, you do not have to activate near the POTA pin; you and your station only need to be on public State Park property, so the best location for you might be different from the pinned location. Note that a few locations under the State Park system have different type names such as "State Fish and Wildlife Area" and "State Preserve" with slightly different management goals, but generally they share similar activation characteristics.
Resource: Official Pennsylvania State Parks webpage:
https://www.dcnr.pa.gov/StateParks/Pages/default.aspx
Here you will find general Parks information as well as links to help you find a park and its webpage. In particular, there is a webpage with a list of maps for all parks that's a good place to go if you already know which park you want to activate.
Pennsylvania's State Forests are huge tracts of primitive land, managed for preservation, resource extraction, and recreation. Most have no public comfort facilities or improved parking. Activators in vehicles can usually find trailhead parking, and many pedestrian activators enjoy walking quiet isolated trails to their operation location.
In contrast to Game Lands and State Parks, the State Forests are managed in 20 large districts and each district contains dozens of noncontiguous tracts and hundreds or thousands of acres. The Forests are managed as a program separate from the State Parks with different goals and staff, but under same DNCR PA government department.
POTA took each district as one POTA reference area. The pin used for a location on the POTA map is therefore somewhat arbitrary. You are urged to find the "public use map" for the forest you're interested in to find activation locations; it is likely that there is a good location closer to you than is marked on the POTA map. As noted for State Parks, you and your station only need to be on the public forest land: any location in any forest tract will do.
Resource:
Official Pennsylvania State Forests district list:
https://www.dcnr.pa.gov/StateForests/FindAForest/
Click into the district (POTA State Forest) you're interested in, and find the link to the "public use map" that is available for most Forests. Note that the map link jumps to another site for download, and the PDF file tends to be tens of megabytes large.
PA POTA sites with type "Conservation Area" are a mixed bag of semi-private nature lands and DNCR carve-outs of State Forest tracts called "natural areas". Not all semi-private nature lands are included, nor are all State Forest natural areas included. The semi-private areas tend to encourage visitors, but the DNCR sites tend to be especially primitive on purpose. Since they vary, it's best to do a Google search to find appropriate information and maps.
Grandfathered from the ARRL's 2016 National Parks on the Air (NPOTA) program, Pennsylvania contains 25 sites managed by the National Park Service (NPS). Each of the NPS sites' specific webpage URLs are included in the POTA.app details page for each site, and those NPS websites have links to official maps that should be used to find activation locations.
Accessibility and ease of activation for most NPS sites are good to excellent, with the exception of sites within the city of Philadelphia ("Philly"). The three (someday four) Philly sites all require pedestrian portable activations and usually require explicit permission sometimes in the form of a formal Special Use Permit...though some activators have been able to activate those sites outside of tourist season in cold weather.
One other exception to easy access is Eisenhower National Historic Site near Gettysburg, where visitors usually are only allowed on official buses. Activators have gotten advanced permission to activate on site however, and there is a sliver of land on property used for bus turnaround that has been used for quick in-vehicle activations.
Type of PA's NPS areas include:
National Historic Sites and Memorials: relatively small sites that have good parking areas (ex. Philly). Gloria Dei Church NHS in Philly is currently not in POTA but should be added someday. Flight 93 Memorial activators should be especially respectful of the site and other visitors for obvious reasons.
National Scenic Trails: long backpacking trails with some trailhead parking. Most cross multiple POTA sites enabling multi-site activations where trails overlap other National and State public lands listed in POTA.
National Historic Trails: routes now traveled by vehicles on modern roads (and in one case waterways). Use the POTA rule for being within 100 feet of trail if you can't actually park on the designated streets. The NPS has detailed Google maps for most of these Historic Trails.
National Recreation Area: the only one in PA is Delaware Water Gap. Activators can find many parking areas as well as trails into forested areas in this vast park.
National Battlefield and Military Park: fairly large parks with multiple sites of easy activations, but these are moderately sensitive sites because of the commemoration of solders' deaths.
National Historical Parks: the only two in PA are Independence NHP and Valley Forge NHP in the Philly area. They are PA's most famous NPS parks. Each have quite different activation characteristics: see the comments for each one in POTA.app.
National Wild and Scenic Rivers; Scenic & Recreational Rivers: unless you activate from a boat, you have to use the 100 foot rule to activate these, typically from adjacent parks or boat launches.
National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) are managed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, not the NPS. Activators should be careful operating in the two NWRs in PA because NWR rangers are serious about protecting wildlife. A number of POTA activators around the country have been admonished by NWR personnel. While the PA NWRs accommodate visitors with public parking, visitors' centers, and trails, the rest of the land is closely monitored. NWRs main purpose is wildlife, not recreation.
We recommend operating only in official parking areas. Do not put anything in trees or stakes in the ground; a vehicle-mounted station is best. Don't be surprised if you are challenged by NWR personnel.