so i finally did my first WWFF activation last weekend, been meaning to do one for months and kept putting it off because i wasnt sure i had the right gear or whatever. ended up just throwing the KX2 in a bag with my linked dipole and drove out to a state forest about 45 minutes from home. the reference is a KFF one so it counts for both the US and the worldwide WWFF program which is cool.

got there around 9am and honestly the setup took maybe 20 minutes, found a decent tree to throw the wire over and just started calling on 40m. i was honestly expecting to sit there and get nothing but the pile up started pretty quick once i spotted myself on the WWFF spotter network. ended up with like 67 contacts in about 2 hours which i know isnt huge but for a first time i was pretty happy. got a bunch of hunters calling in and a few people that seemed pretty excited to get the reference.

the whole thing was just really enjoyable, way more relaxed than contesting and you actually get to sit outside and enjoy where you are. already planning my next one. anyone else do a lot of WWFF activations? any tips for finding good references that arent already activated a million times?

welcome to the addiction haha. seriously though 67 contacts on your first activation is pretty solid, some people struggle to get the 44 minimum for a valid activation so you did great. the spotting networks make a huge difference, i always post to wwff.us and also put something on SOTA watch if im doing a combined activation.

for finding references that are less crowded, i usually just browse the WWFF directory and filter by activation count. parks and forests with zero or very few activations are everywhere once you start looking, and hunters get excited because theyre chasing a new reference. i tend to avoid the super popular ones on weekends anyway just because parking is a nightmare. also worth checking if your state has any WFF references that are national wildlife refuges or wilderness areas, those tend to be really nice operating spots and people love them.

what antenna setup were you running with the KX2? im always curious what people bring for portable ops

thats awesome, ive been thinking about trying WWFF but honestly im still not totally clear on how the logging works after the activation. do you just upload to ADIF or is there a specific portal? i did a couple POTA activations and that system made sense to me but the WWFF side of things seems like it might be different or maybe i'm overcomplicating it