so i finally did my first summit activation last weekend, took me forever to actually commit and just go do it. been talking about it for like two years lol. anyway i packed way too much stuff, brought the ft-818 plus a backup HT and like three different antennas and my pack was absolutely killing me by the time i got to the top. should have just brought the end fed and called it a day.

managed to get my four contacts though which felt amazing honestly, one guy chased me from three states over on 40m SSB which i wasnt expecting at all. had a little trouble getting spotted on SOTAwatch at first because i forgot i had no cell signal up there and had to use APRS to self-spot which i had only half set up on the TH-D74 before i left. got it working eventually but wasted like 20 minutes messing with it on the summit which was kind of annoying when the weather was starting to look iffy.

overall totally worth it, planning to do a P2P with a buddy next month if we can coordinate schedules. anyone else use APRS spotting regularly for activations or do you mostly rely on cell

yeah the APRS spotting thing is a lifesaver once you get it dialed in ahead of time. i always do a test spot from home the night before just to make sure the path settings are right and the TNC is actually talking to the radio properly. learned that the hard way on a summit in colorado, spent 20 minutes troubleshooting and realized i had the wrong SSID set or something dumb like that.

also totally agree on the pack weight thing. i went through like three iterations before i settled on just the KX2, a small LiPo, and a linked dipole on a 20 foot mast. whole kit is under 10 lbs now and i can actually enjoy the hike instead of suffering through it. the four contact minimum seems low but when youre tired and the weathers turning it can feel like a lot more work than you expect.

nice work on the first one. i did my first POTA a few weeks ago, different vibe than SOTA since you dont have to hike anywhere but still pretty fun. set up in a state park parking lot which felt a little weird but whatever, got like 40 contacts in an hour on 20m which was way more than i thought id get. might try combining a POTA and SOTA activation sometime if i can find a summit thats also in a park boundary