so i finally did my first activation last weekend on a local summit here in western NC, W4C/CM-001 if anyone knows it, and honestly it was a blast even though my legs were completely dead by the time i got back to the car lol. ran QRP with my KX2 and a wire dipole slung between two trees and managed to get 12 contacts in maybe 45 minutes which i think qualifies? i was reading that you need 4 minimum so i figured 12 was good enough to feel real.

anyway i have some questions for the more experienced folks here. first, do chasers actually look at spots on sotawatch before calling or is it mostly just people scanning the bands? because i self spotted using the app and within like 2 minutes i had a small pileup which surprised me. second thing is i noticed some chasers giving me signal reports and then saying things like S2S which i didnt fully understand at the time, realized later it means summit to summit but i wasnt sure if i needed to do anything special to log that or if it just counts as a regular contact. third, and this might be a dumb question, but do i need to log anything special on the sota database site for the contacts that were S2S or does the other activator handle that?

either way cant wait to do another one, already looking at summits in the area with decent trail access before winter sets in

congrats on the first activation, 12 contacts is a solid start and yeah you're right that 4 is the minimum so you're well qualified. to answer your questions, chasers definitely watch sotawatch and the spots are huge, that's almost certainly why you got a pileup so fast. self spotting is the way to go especially when you're new and dont have someone to spot you.

for the S2S thing, both activators log it separately in their own logs on the sota database, you log it just like a normal contact but when you submit your log there's a way to mark it as summit to summit and it shows up that way in the system. the other activator does the same on their end. it's worth a few extra points and people get a separate award for S2S contacts so chasers and activators both get excited about them. just make sure you noted their summit reference, should be something like W4C or W5N followed by the summit code. if you didn't catch it during the QSO you might be able to find it by looking at who was spotted active at the same time on sotawatch history.

anyway sounds like you've got the bug now, western NC has some fantastic summits and a lot of them are accessible year round if you're willing to deal with some mud

S2S contacts are honestly one of the best parts of SOTA once you get into it, there's something really satisfying about two people both hauling gear up different mountains and managing to work each other. I've done maybe 30 activations at this point and S2S is always the highlight of a log when it happens.

one thing i'd add, if you weren't already using 14.285 or 7.033 or the usual SOTA watering holes, try to stick around those general areas when you self spot because that's where chasers will go looking even before they see your exact frequency. sometimes the spot takes a minute to propagate and people are already scanning before they see it.