so i finally did my first SOTA activation last weekend up on a summit here in the white mountains and man i was not prepared for how much the wind affects everything. got my end-fed halfwave strung up between two trees and the whole thing was just flapping around like crazy, kept moving my SWR all over the place. made like 4 contacts before i just gave up and called it. still counts i guess since you only need 4 but i felt kind of defeated honestly. i think i need a better way to tension the wire or maybe a different antenna setup for exposed summits. anyone else dealt with this kind of thing

yeah wind on summits is no joke, ive had the same thing happen with EFHWs. what worked for me was switching to a linked dipole with a shorter overall span so theres less surface area catching the wind, also i stake the feedpoint down low and angle the wire more steeply rather than trying to get a flat run between two trees. takes some practice to find a configuration that holds up. also 4 contacts is 4 contacts man, activation is an activation, dont sweat it

I had the same problem my first time out. Ended up just holding the feedpoint in my hand and leaning against a rock with my KX2 in my lap. Not pretty but it worked. Sometimes you just gotta improvise up there