so i finally did my first WWFF activation last weekend, been meaning to do one for ages and just never got around to it. picked a local nature reserve about 20 mins from home, KFF-2847 or something like that, had to look it up on the wwff directory which took me a little while to figure out honestly.

anyway i set up my end-fed near the trailhead, ran about 40 watts on 40m and 20m and managed to get 47 QSOs in about 2.5 hours which i think is decent? the threshold for a valid activation is 44 contacts right, so i just squeaked past it. had a few hunters call in from europe which was a nice surprise.

my question is about logging — im using HAMRS on my tablet and it seemed to work fine but when i went to upload to the wwff logbook i wasnt sure if i needed to do anything special with the ADIF export or if it just goes straight in. also do i need to post to the wwff spotting network myself or do people just find you?

overall though what a great program, cant believe i waited this long to try it

congrats on the activation, 47 Qs on your first one is really solid especially if conditions werent great. and yes 44 is the magic number for a valid activation so you're good.

for the logging stuff — HAMRS export should work fine, just make sure the ADIF has the POTA_REF field populated with the reference number, the WWFF system is pretty forgiving but ive seen people have issues when that field is blank or formatted wrong. when you submit to wwffdxhf.adif or wherever you're uploading just follow the instructions on the main wwff page and it usually goes through within a day or two for validation.

as for spotting, you really want to self-spot if you can, either through the WWFF spotting page or just post to POTA spots since a lot of hunters monitor both. if you dont spot yourself you're basically hoping someone stumbles across you or that another ham spots you which does happen but its hit or miss. i usually spot about 10 min after i get set up and start calling CQ, gives people time to see it and tune in.

nice work on getting out there. i did my first one last spring and totally understand the logging confusion, the wwff website isnt the most intuitive thing in the world haha. one thing i'll add is that some of the more active wwff hunters are also on the facebook group and they're really helpful if you get stuck with the upload process, someone walked me through it step by step when i was lost.

also kind of off topic but did you have any wildlife encounter while you were out? i ask because half the reason i do these activations honestly is just being out in nature, the radio is almost secondary sometimes. last time i activated a wildlife refuge i had a great blue heron just standing like 10 feet from my antenna the whole time, kept looking at it like it was trying to figure out what this weird wire thing was