so i finally did my first parks on the air activation at a state park about 45 minutes from my house. been lurking on the pota.app site for months watching other peoples activations and reading the spotting page and i figured it might as well just go do it.

brought my FT-891 and a random wire antenna i strung up between two trees, maybe 30 feet of wire running at a weird angle but it worked. got on 40m around 1pm local and honestly the pile up started within like 3 minutes of spotting myself which i wasnt ready for at all. ended up with 22 QSOs in about an hour which i know is way more than the 10 you need but i got kind of addicted and just kept going.

the weird part was a couple guys who called me and when i sent my signal report and the park reference they just said 73 and disappeared, like they didnt even confirm the park number or anything. is that normal? does the park reference need to be in the actual exchange or do hunters just log it from the spot? i was confused about that. also had one guy who kept calling over everyone during the pileup which was annoying but whatever i guess thats just how it goes sometimes.

anyway really glad i did it. already looking at the map for parks near me that have never been activated, there are a few that show zero activations which seems like a good challenge

congrats on the first one, 22 QSOs is a solid start especially on a random wire. to answer your question about the park reference — yeah hunters mostly grab the park number from the spot on pota.app so you dont necessarily have to exchange it verbally every single contact. most of the time the exchange is just signal report, name, maybe state and thats enough. the park reference is kind of assumed because they can see your spot. some people do confirm it but its not required in the exchange itself.

the guy calling over everybody is unfortunately pretty common in pileups, just part of life. some people havent learned pileup etiquette or honestly just dont care. you handled it right by ignoring it and working whoever you could actually copy. as you do more activations you get better at picking calls out of chaos, it becomes almost like a game.

those unactivated parks are really satisfying to get. the first activation of a park feels different than just adding a number to an already popular one. good luck with it

nice work, im still working up the nerve to do my first activation lol. been hunting from home for a few months and it looks so stressful trying to manage a pile up by yourself. did you pre-announce it on the POTA activations page before you went out or did you just show up and spot yourself on the day?