so i finally did my first real POTA activation last weekend at a state park about 45 minutes from home. been putting it off forever because i kept thinking i needed more gear or a better antenna situation but i just threw the ft-891 in a backpack with my end fed halfwave and a little mast and drove out there

set up in like 20 minutes which surprised me, the antenna went up in a tree no problem and i had a little camp chair and ran off a 20ah lifepo4 battery. worked 12 contacts on 20m in maybe 40 minutes, could have kept going but i had to get back. cw woulda been faster i know but i did SSB cause im still building up my cw speed

honestly the hardest part was logging on my phone while also operating, i was using hamrs and kept fat fingering the callsigns. anyone else use a physical log out in the field or is the phone thing just something you get used to

yeah the phone logging thing drove me nuts at first too. i switched to a small paper log and then enter everything into the app after i get home, takes maybe 10 minutes and way less stressful while youre actually operating. some people swear by the apps but for me paper in the field just works better, especially when its cold and your fingers dont cooperate

nice work on the activation though, 12 contacts is solid for a first time out. once you get the hang of it youll be knocking them out way faster

hamrs works fine once you get used to it but i do tap the wrong thing constantly lol. i started using a small bluetooth keyboard with my phone and that helped a ton actually, just sits on my leg while im operating