so i finally did my first summit activation last weekend, W4T/SU-001, and man i was not prepared for how much wind there would be up top. had my KX2 and a linked dipole and spent like 20 minutes just trying to get the thing strung up between two trees that were way too far apart. ended up just propping one end on my hiking pole and calling it good enough.

got 4 QSOs before my fingers went numb and i bailed. still counts right? i think i needed like 4 minimum so i literally squeaked by. going to try again next month with better gloves and maybe a shorter antenna setup, the linked dipole was kind of a pain to deal with on a windy ridge

4 contacts is exactly the minimum so yeah it absolutely counts, congrats on the first one. the wind thing is real, i ruined a perfectly good afternoon on a summit in Colorado because i didnt bring enough layers and just gave up after 2 contacts. now i always check the summit weather specifically not just the town at the bottom

for the antenna i switched to a random wire with a 9:1 unun and an autotuner, way less fiddling around. the linked dipole is great but when youre cold and frustrated its just more stuff to deal with

i did a POTA activation last fall at a state park and even that was kind of chaotic, cant imagine dealing with a summit on top of it. did you spot yourself on SOTAwatch before you went up? makes a huge difference for getting pileups instead of just calling CQ forever into nothing