so i finally did my first activation last weekend, went up to W6/NC-424 which is only about a 2 mile hike but still counts and i was pretty nervous about the whole thing. brought my KX2 and a wire dipole i threw up in a tree and honestly it worked way better than i thought it would. got my 4 contacts no problem, actually ended up with like 11 QSOs before my fingers got too cold to type the log on my phone.

anyway i have some questions for people who do this regularly. first, how strict are people about the activation zone? i was maybe 25 feet outside what i thought the boundary was and moved back but wasnt totally sure i was reading the map right. second, does it matter what bands you use for the log to count? i did mostly 20m SSB but someone told me CW contacts count more or something? and third, what app are people using to spot themselves, i was using SOTAwatch but it felt clunky on my phone in the cold with gloves on.

overall it was an awesome experience and im already planning the next one. my wife thinks im crazy for hauling radio gear up a mountain but she doesnt get it lol

congrats on the first one, that feeling of getting your 4 contacts and knowing it counts never really gets old honestly. on your activation zone question — the AZ is defined as within 25 vertical meters of the summit, not horizontal distance, so as long as you were within that elevation band youre fine. the topo on the SOTA maps page will show it if you zoom in, and i usually just check it before i leave the car so i know roughly where im working.

CW contacts dont count more for the activation itself, you still just need 4 QSOs with any mode on any band. the difference is some chasers prefer CW and youll often get a pileup faster if you put up a CW spot, especially on 40m. but for your log it all counts equally. and for spotting i switched to the Reflector app on android and it works pretty well with gloves, bigger buttons. some people just text a friend to post a spot for them which sounds silly but actually works great when its cold.

yeah the activation zone thing confused me too when I started. I just err on the side of being closer to the actual summit and havent had any issues. also 11 QSOs on your first time out is really solid, i think i got exactly 4 on mine and called it a day because i panicked that nobody else would answer lol. what antenna setup did you use, like was it a linked dipole or just cut for 20m?