so i finally did my first SOTA activation last weekend, summit was only a 2 mile hike so i figured it would be easy. packed the KX2, wire antenna, and my usual field kit. got up there and the wind was absolutely insane, like i could barely keep the antenna up. ended up just doing a half wave end fed slung between my trekking pole and a rock and it actually worked ok once i got it sorted out.

got 4 contacts on 20m before my fingers were too cold to key properly lol. activaton counts though right? just barely squeaked it out. already planning the next one, thinking about trying 40m next time since the band was kind of dead when i was up there. anyone else find 20 to be hit or miss for SOTA?

4 contacts is all you need man, activation is an activation. i've done summits where i barely got the required contacts and others where i was up there for 2 hours working a pile. 40m is usually more reliable for shorter distances, especially if you self spot on sotawatch and people know you're up there. also worth posting an alert the day before if you can, makes a huge difference how fast the contacts come in.

yeah 20 has been weird lately, some days its wide open and other days nothing. i did a POTA activation two weeks ago and had way better luck just dropping down to 40 after like 15 minutes. cold fingers are the worst, i started keeping a pair of thin glove liners in my pack just for logging and keying, helps a bit. congrats on the first one though