so i finally did my first activation last weekend, W4T/SU-001, and i thought it would be pretty straightforward since ive been a ham for like 3 years and figured i knew what i was doing. yeah. no.

got to the summit fine, conditions were decent, had my KX2 and a linked dipole i built a few months ago. set everything up, spotted myself on SOTAwatch, and then just... waited. and waited. got one contact in the first 20 minutes which was great but then the pile just dried up. started wondering if my spot even went through right or if the antenna was messed up. ended up with 6 QSOs total which qualifies the summit but barely, and two of them were on 2m FM which i almost feel like cheating using lol.

i know 4 is the magic number so technically its a successful activation but man i expected more based on how it sounds when people talk about SOTA. also the wind was absolutely brutal up there, lost one of my tent stakes i was using to guy the mast and spent 20 minutes chasing it around the summit. is it normal for the first one to feel kind of chaotic? any tips for getting more chasers to respond would be appreciated, especially on HF

6 contacts is a win, full stop. honestly the first few activations everyone feels exactly like you described — the chaos is part of it and it does get better once you develop a rhythm for setup. the wind thing never fully goes away though haha, ive had poles go sideways on me more times than i can count.

for getting more chasers, timing matters a lot more than people realize. weekday mornings before noon local are usually slower, weekends especially saturday mornings you'll find way more chasers actively watching SOTAwatch. also make sure your spot has the correct frequency and mode — i've seen people spot themselves on 14.285 and then actually be on 14.290 and wonder why nobody's coming back to them. and honestly just call CQ SOTA persistently, some chasers are just waiting to hear you actually on the air before they trust the spot.

the 2m FM contacts absolutely count by the way, dont let anyone tell you otherwise. a QSO is a QSO and the rules dont care what band or mode.

yeah the first one is always a little rough, i remember mine felt like i was setting up camp in a hurricane while also trying to remember how to operate a radio lol. it gets way more relaxed once the setup routine becomes muscle memory.

one thing that helped me a lot was self-spotting earlier — like as soon as im on the trail honestly, just put an alert up the night before on SOTAwatch so chasers can plan around it. experienced chasers watch the alerts and some of them will literally be sitting by their radio at the time you said you'd be on. makes a huge difference compared to just popping up with a cold spot.