so i finally did my first activation last weekend, W4C/EM-023 up near asheville, and man i had no idea what i was getting into. brought my KX2 and a end fed halfwave i built, figured id be up there making contacts in like 20 minutes. took me almost an hour to find a decent spot with any kind of line of sight, the trees were insane. then i spent another 20 minutes trying to get my antenna up in a tree and the paracord just kept getting tangled. by the time i was actually on the air i had like 45 minutes before i needed to head back down and my hands were kind of shaking from the cold which i was not prepared for at all. did get 6 contacts though so i guess it counts. already planning the next one, gonna bring warmer gloves and a proper throw bag for the antenna

yeah the first one is always like that haha. i remeber my first activation i forgot to actually spot myself on SOTAwatch and just sat there calling CQ for like 15 minutes wondering why nobody was answering. the throw bag thing is huge, i use a tennis ball with some fishing line now and it makes getting the antenna up so much faster. 6 contacts is fine you only need 4 to qualify so you did great

cold hands are no joke when youre trying to tune and log at the same time. i do a lot of POTA too and honestly the setup time is what kills me every time, i keep thinking ill get faster but there's always something. what logging app were you using out there