so i finally did my first summit activation last weekend, W4T/SU-001 up in the smokies. been putting it off for like two years because i kept overthinking the gear situation. ended up just throwing my KX2 in the pack with a 40m EFHW and a little 3ah lipo and hiked up. conditions were rough on 40 but i scraped together 5 contacts in about 20 minutes and then 20m opened up a bit and i got like 8 more. honestly the hardest part was finding a decent spot to throw the wire up in the trees, the summit was kinda exposed and rocky. but yeah it worked. im already planning the next one, theres a peak about an hour from me i want to try. anyone else notice 20m being weirdly patchy in the afternoons lately or is that just me

congrats on the first one, that feeling after you get your qualifying contacts is pretty great. i remember mine, completely fumbled the exchange on the first call because i was nervous and out of breath from the hike lol. 20m has been pretty inconsistent for me too in the afternoons, i usually try to hit it in the morning now before like 1pm local and it seems way better. also if you dont already have it, the SOTA spotter app is huge for chasing your own activation, get someone to spot you before you even start calling CQ and the pile comes to you

yeah the wire hanging situation is always the adventure isnt it. ive started carrying a cheap fishing pole style mast just like a 6m fiberglass thing, takes up no space and you can just stick it in a crack in the rocks. changed everything for me on exposed summits. KX2 is such a good radio for this stuff, i keep telling myself i dont need one and then i do another activation with my old FT-817 and i think about it the whole way back down