so i finally did my first activation up on a local summit last weekend, been putting it off for months because i kept second guessing my kit. ended up throwing the kx2 in my pack with a 20m EFHW rolled up and my little 4ah lipo battery. hike up was fine, maybe 45 minutes, not too bad. got to the top and the wind was absolutely brutal, like i could barely hold the antenna wire while trying to tie it off to a branch. spent probably 20 minutes just getting the stupid thing in the air and by the time i was on frequency my hands were half frozen.

managed to get 4 contacts before the battery connector wiggled loose and i lost power. spent another 10 minutes figuring out what happened. got it back up, worked a few more, made the 4 contact minimum so it counts but man it was way more stressful than i expected. nobody tells you about the wind thing when you're reading activation reports

yeah wind is the great equalizer up there, doesnt matter how dialed your station is if you cant get the antenna up lol. i use those cheap plastic tent stakes to anchor my feedpoint to the ground and that helped a ton, keeps the wire from whipping around while your trying to get the other end secured. congrats on the activation though, 4 contacts is 4 contacts and the first one always has something go wrong

I had almost the exact same experience on my first one. Battery connector issue too, mine was the XT60 on my pack just wasnt seated all the way and i didnt notice. After that i started putting a little piece of electrical tape over the connector once its plugged in, dumb simple fix but it hasnt happened again. The wind thing I still havent fully solved honestly, some summits are just miserable no matter what you do.