so i finally did my first SOTA activation last weekend, summit was only a 2 point hill but man i was not prepared for how much that extra gear weighs when youre actually hiking. brought way too much stuff, the full sized 40m dipole, the whole feedline coil, like 3 liters of water which was probably smart but still. ended up making 9 contacts before the battery died which i thought was embarrassing but someone in my club said thats actually fine for a first attempt. radio was the KX2 and honestly it performed great, no issues there, just operator error on pretty much everything else lol

9 contacts on your first activation is solid man dont sweat it. i remember my first one i only got 4 and one of those was a guy who felt sorry for me i think. the weight thing hits everybody hard the first time, you'll end up cutting your kit down to almost nothing after a few trips. i run a 20m link dipole now and leave the 40m stuff at home unless the summit warrants it. KX2 is a great choice by the way, same radio i use

yeah the battery thing gets me every time too, i always think im bringing enough and then im not. have you tried POTA yet? its a bit more chill since you dont have to worry about the summit rules and you can just park somewhere and operate from the car if you need to. did a state park last month and made like 40 contacts in two hours just running 10 watts on 40m, way less stressful than hauling everything up a hill