so i finally did my first POTA activation yesterday at a state park about 45 mins from my house. brought my ft-891 and a linked dipole i built a few months ago, figured id just string it up between two trees and bang out my 10 contacts easy. yeah that didnt happen.

couldnt get the antenna high enough because turns out the trees i picked were kinda short and had a ton of branches in the way, ended up with it maybe 15 feet up at best, drooping in the middle like a sad noodle. got it tuned eventually with the ldk-100 but swr was still kind of ugly on 40. managed to get 6 contacts before the band just died on me, had to switch to 20 and then it started raining. packed up with 8 contacts total, one short of the qualifying 10.

not complaining too much because i learned a ton and the portable setup actually worked better than i expected considering. just need a better plan for antenna deployment next time. anyone else have a rough first activation like this?

oh man yeah my first one was a disaster too, forgot my coax adapter and had to drive home. at least you got 8 contacts out of it. honestly the antenna placement thing takes a while to get a feel for, i always scope out the park on google maps satellite view beforehand now to look for tall trees. also a throw bag and some paracord helps a ton for getting the wire up higher. you'll get it next time for sure

8 contacts on a bad band day with a droopy dipole isnt bad at all tbh. i do a lot of SOTA and the rule i follow is bring a backup antenna, i always toss a random wire and a 9:1 unun in the bag just in case the primary setup doesnt work out. the rain thing is annoying but 40 meters in the afternoon is pretty rough anyway depending on where you are