so i finally did my first activation last weekend at a state park about 45 minutes from my house, been putting it off for months because i kept second guessing my setup and honestly just felt a little intimidated by the whole thing. ended up taking my FT-891 and a random wire antenna i threw up in a tree and just worked 10w the whole time which probably wasnt necessary but whatever it worked.

got my 10 contacts in maybe 40 minutes which i was pretty happy with, bunch of hunters on 40m were just waiting it seemed like. my question is about the spotting system though — i spotted myself on the POTA app before i started and it worked fine but i noticed other activators seem to get like 50+ contacts in an hour and im wondering if theres a strategy im missing. do people just stay on one frequency the whole time or do they hop around? also is SSB always better than CW for getting contacts faster, im not super comfortable with CW yet so i was just using phone.

anyway it was a really good time, ate lunch by the lake and worked radio, honestly cant believe i waited so long to try it

congrats on the first one, that's always the hardest one to actually go do. 10 contacts in 40 minutes on your first try with 10w is solid, dont let anyone tell you otherwise.

on the frequency thing — most activators i know find a clear spot and just park there for the duration, especially on 40m. the hunters will find you through the spot, you dont really need to jump around. what helps more is calling CQ POTA specifically and keeping your exchange tight so you can log fast. if you start chatting with every station youll slow way down. some guys do like 3-4 exchanges and move on, keeps the pile up moving.

CW will absolutely get you more contacts per hour once you're comfortable but honestly SSB is totally fine, i know activators with hundreds of activations who never touch CW. just keep at it and the numbers come naturally once you get a feel for the rhythm of running a pile up.

oh man the spotting system is kind of the whole game for POTA lol. i did my second activation last month and forgot to re-spot myself when i switched from 40 to 20 and the contacts just dried up completely for like 15 minutes before i figured out what happened. always re-spot when you change bands or mode, the hunters are literally watching that screen and wont find you otherwise.

also someone told me early morning on weekends is when the hunters are most active, something about people sitting with coffee and the radio on. i havent totally confirmed that but my best contact rates do seem to be before noon