so i finally did my first SOTA activation last weekend, W4C/EM-005 up in the smokies. been planning it for like two months. hauled up my KX2 and a linked dipole and everything seemed fine until i got to the summit and realized i forgot my friggin counterpoise for the end fed. just completely blanked on it.

ended up just stringing the dipole as best i could between some scrubby trees and got it maybe 15 feet off the ground on one end. made 6 contacts on 20m SSB which i guess counts but i was hoping for way more. the signal reports were all over the place too, one guy gave me a 57 and the next guy could barely hear me. wind was also something else up there, nearly knocked my mast over twice.

anyway still got the activation points so thats something. anybody else have a disaster first activation story because im feeling a little dumb right now

dude 6 contacts is still a valid activation, dont beat yourself up. my first one i forgot my coax adapter and had to just hold the connector in place with my hand for like 45 minutes. made 4 contacts before my arm gave out. we all do dumb stuff the first few times out, the checklist gets better after you ruin a trip or two lol

the linked dipole will serve you well once you get the setup dialed in btw. i run basically the same thing on most of my activations and its hard to beat for weight vs performance.

wind on those smokies summits is no joke. i was on a POTA activation at a park near there and thought my speaker was gonna blow away. ended up just using headphones the whole time which actually worked better anyway. congrats on the activation though, 6 is 6