so i finally did my first SOTA activation last weekend up on a local summit here in the midwest, nothing crazy just a 4 pointer but i was honestly nervous about the whole thing. packed my ft-891 and a random wire end fed tuned with a little manual tuner, took forever to find a decent spot to throw the wire up but eventually got it slung over a branch maybe 20 feet up and it actually worked pretty well.

made like 14 contacts in about 40 minutes on 40m which i was happy with, a couple chasers were already waiting which surprised me, didnt realize people actually watch the spots that closely. had one guy come back to me like 3 times trying to give me a state multiplier or something idk, he was very patient with my fumbling around.

whole thing was exhausting but in the best way, already looking at the map for the next one. anyone else find that first activation kind of addictive?

yeah that first one gets you for sure, i remember mine i was so stressed about the antenna setup that i forgot to log half my contacts properly and had to reconstruct it from memory later. the chasers on SOTA are super forgiving tho, theyre used to activators being a little scattered especially on a first run.

40m is a solid choice for a local summit, though once you start hitting higher elevations youll want to have 20m dialed in too, the pile ups can get pretty wild if you get spotted at the right time of day. whats your antenna situation, are you doing a linked dipole or just the efhw?

POTA is the same way honestly, i did my first park activation at a state park like 20 minutes from my house and i was hooked immediately. something about just being outside with a radio and actually making contacts that hits different than sitting in the shack. my wife still doesnt fully understand why i drove 20 min to do the same thing i could do at home but whatever it makes sense to me lol