so i finally did my first ever SOTA activation last weekend, W6 summit up in the sierras, took me like 3 hours to hike up and by the time i got there my hands were pretty much frozen and i couldnt figure out why my KX2 wasnt putting out any power at all. stood there like an idiot for 20 minutes fiddling with it before i realized i had the RF power knob turned almost all the way down from when i was testing inside the car before the hike. got 4 contacts and then the battery died because i forgot to fully charge it the night before. still counts as an activation though right? i was in the activation zone the whole time

yeah 4 contacts absolutely counts, you just need the minimum which i think is 4 for most programs so you nailed it. the frozen hands thing is real, i do a lot of winter POTA and honestly i started keeping a pair of those thin liner gloves just for operating because you cant really work a paddle with ski gloves on. also the RF power thing happens to everyone at least once, i did almost the exact same thing on my second activation except mine was the antenna connector wasnt seated all the way

congrats on the first one. honestly the battery thing gets everyone, i now carry a spare 3ah lipo just in case even though its extra weight. what antenna were you running up there?