so i finally did my first activation last weekend at a state park about 45 minutes from my house, K-4577 if anyone knows it. been hunting for about 6 months and always wanted to try the other side of it. threw my end fed halfwave up in a tree using a throw line, took maybe 20 minutes longer than it should have because i kept missing the branch i was aiming for lol

ended up getting 23 QSOs on 40m SSB in about an hour and a half which i know is enough to count but i wanted more. signals seemed decent, got a few 59s from guys in the midwest which surprised me since im running a KX2 at 10 watts. tried moving to 20m after a while but the band felt pretty dead to me or maybe i just didnt know how to spot myself properly

the spotting thing is honestly what confused me most. i spotted on POTA.app but then wasnt sure if i should re-spot every time i changed frequency or what. also a couple hunters called me while i was already in a QSO and i didnt know the etiquette there — do you just let them wait or say QRZ after each contact or what exactly. any tips from folks who do this regularly would be great

congrats on the first one, 23 contacts at QRP on your first time out is honestly a solid start. the spotting thing trips everyone up at first. yeah you should respot when you move frequencies, the hunters are watching that spot and if you move without updating it youll have people calling on the old freq wondering where you went. some guys respot every 20-30 minutes even if they havent moved just to stay near the top of the list and get a fresh wave of callers.

for the pileup etiquette, most activators just work through them one at a time and say QRZ or just their callsign after each QSO. if its a big pileup some people call by region or last letter but for a normal activation just keep it moving and people will wait their turn. the hunters are used to it. the ones who call mid-QSO are kind of breaking the unwritten rules anyway, dont stress about it.

20m can be weird depending on the time of day, i find it really opens up midday but early morning and late afternoon 40m is usually better for regional stuff. good luck on the next one

nice work man. i did my first activation like two months ago and the spotting thing got me too, i didnt respot and then the pileup just kinda dried up and i sat there confused for ten minutes before i figured it out. also WWFF spotting is separate from POTA spotting which nobody told me and i wasted time on that