so i finally did my first WWFF activation today, been meaning to try it for ages after reading about it on here. went out to a local nature reserve that's registered as a reference (KFF-xxxx i think, had to look it up on the wwff.cc site) and honestly wasnt sure what to expect in terms of whether anyone would actually call in or not.

i set up a simple end fed wire in an inverted vee off a fiberglass pole, ran about 10 watts on 40m and made contact with 16 stations before the battery started getting low. i know you need 44 to actually activate the reference but i wasnt really expecting to hit that number on my first go anyway, more just wanted to see how the whole thing worked and get a feel for it.

what surprised me was how friendly everyone was on the frequency, a couple of hunters (i think thats what they call the people chasing the references?) even stuck around and gave me tips in between contacts. one guy told me to post my spot on the WWFF spotting network before i even start operating which i had no idea about, would have helped a lot.

anyone else do a lot of WWFF? curious whether 40m is usually the go-to band or if i should be trying other bands when conditions are better. also wondering if parks on the air activations count for WWFF too or if those are totally separate things

nice work getting out there, 16 contacts for a first outing is totally respectable. yeah the 44 QSO threshold to fully activate a reference trips up a lot of new folks but once you get the hang of spotting yourself and maybe posting on the relevant facebook groups beforehand the pileups come pretty quick.

POTA and WWFF overlap a bit but they're separate programs with separate databases. a lot of operators log for both at the same time though since you can submit the same log to each, just gotta make sure you're in a reference that's registered in both systems. some parks are in both, some arent. worth checking wwff.cc and the pota.app site side by side before you go out.

40m is solid especially in the afternoon and evening, but 20m during the day gets you a much wider footprint if you're after contacts from further afield. some activators run both bands back to back once they hit their 44 on 40. good luck with the next one

oh man i didnt know about the spotting network thing either when i started, cost me probably an hour of calling CQ into the void on my first activation haha. now i spot myself on the wwff network and pota app at the same time before i even key up and the first call usually comes within a minute or two.

also dont underestimate 17m if you have the capability, weirdly good for WWFF sometimes especially mid morning