so i finally did my first activation last weekend at a state park about 45 minutes from my house, been putting it off for like 6 months because i kept thinking i wasnt ready or didn't have the right gear. ended up just throwing my KX2 in a bag with a random wire antenna and a 9:1 unun and just went for it.

got there around 9am, found a picnic table kind of off by itself, set up in maybe 20 minutes which honestly surprised me. strung the wire up in an inverted L off a tree branch using a throw weight. conditions were pretty decent on 20m and i ended up with 23 QSOs in about an hour and a half which i know is well over the 10 minimum so the park is activated. logged everything on paper and then transferred to ADIF later for the upload.

couple questions though — when you're self-spotting on the POTA app, do you need to do that before you start calling CQ or can you do it anytime? i spotted myself after like 15 minutes and the rate picked up a lot but not sure if thats normal. also does it matter what frequency you pick or is there kind of an understood range people stick to for POTA on 20m? i was just finding a clear spot and didn't know if i was doing it wrong.

congrats on the first one, and yeah that feeling of "just go do it" is really the only way to get started. 23 QSOs for your first time out is solid, some people struggle to hit 10 when they're starting out, so you did well.

on the self-spotting question — you can spot yourself anytime honestly, but what most people do is get set up, make sure the antenna is tuning up okay, maybe do a quick test call, and then spot. no rule that says it has to be before your first CQ. spotting mid-session is totally fine and yeah the rate almost always jumps because the hunters on the POTA website see you pop up and come running.

as for frequencies, there's no strictly reserved POTA portion of the band but there are ranges where you tend to find most activity. on 20m SSB a lot of activators hang around 14.240-14.300 roughly, just find something clear and call CQ POTA. the hunters will find you via the spot. some people also work 40m in the mornings especially if they're in the eastern US, propagation can be better for shorter hops. you definitely weren't doing it wrong, sounds like you figured it out pretty naturally.

nice work getting out there. i did my first one earlier this year and was also way overthinking it beforehand. the KX2 is such a good little radio for this stuff, i use mine with a similar setup.

one thing i'll add is if you havent already, download the POTA app and look at the alerts feature — hunters can set alerts for specific parks and they'll get notified when someone spots for that park. so if you're going back to the same park or doing a rarer reference you might get a little pile up which is fun. also keep an eye on whether your park has been activated before, if it's a fairly rare one you'll probably have an easier time getting hunters to find you.