So I finally did my first activation last weekend up on W4T/SU-001 and honestly it was way more fun than I expected. Been chasing summits for about 8 months now and kept telling myself id get around to doing an actual activation and i finally just did it. Took my FT-818 and a linked dipole I built from a kit, threw it up in a tree with a painters pole and just started calling on 40m.

Got my 4 contacts pretty quick which was a relief because I was worried nobody would hear me, running only 5 watts. A couple of the chasers gave me signal reports that seemed way too generous honestly but whatever I'll take it. Then I moved to 20m and got a few more including one guy from Ontario which felt pretty cool for 5 watts.

Couple things I'm not sure about — do you log the summit reference in your personal log or just on SOTAdata? I've been putting it in my notes field in HAMRS but wondering if theres a standard way people do it. Also I noticed when I uploaded to SOTAdata it said my activation was valid but I only see 1 point for the summit, thought it was worth more? Maybe I'm reading the page wrong. Anyway really enjoyed it and already planning the next one, probably something a bit more of a hike next time.

congrats on the first one, that feeling when you hit your 4th contact is pretty great right? For the logging question honestly most people just do whatever works for them, I use HAMRS too and yeah i just shove the summit ref in the notes. Some folks use a separate spreadsheet just for SOTA. As long as its on SOTAdata thats really all that matters for the points and records.

On the points thing — the value you see on the summit page is the points you award to chasers, your activator points are separate. If you click over to your activator log on the dashboard you should see what you actually earned. Most summits in that range are 2 points for the activator I think but it depends on the prominence. Might be worth double checking the summit entry on the SOTA mapping project, it shows the full breakdown.

Nice work getting out there. W4T is a great association to start in, lots of accessible summits. I was chasing you actually, well not specifically you but I was on 40m that morning working a pile and might have caught a W4T activation around that time — small world maybe.

The 5 watt thing stops being surprising pretty fast once you get a decent antenna up. The linked dipole is probably doing more work than you realize. I run QRP almost exclusively for activations now and honestly the hardest part is the hike not the radio part. What are you thinking for your next summit, anything with a bit more elevation?