so i finally did my first SOTA activation last weekend, took about 2 hours to hike up W4T/SU-017 with my KX2 and a random wire i threw together the night before. wasnt sure i was gonna get 4 contacts but ended up with 11 including a S2S with some guy in Colorado which was pretty cool. ran into some issues with my counterpoise flopping around in the wind but just held it down with a rock lol. the summit wasnt even that high but man carrying all that gear plus water made it feel like everest. anyway if anyones on the fence about trying it just go do it, whole thing cost me maybe 15 bucks in gas

S2S on your first activation thats awesome. i did my first one like 3 years ago and totally fumbled the exchange because i wasnt ready for how fast the chasers come in. the counterpoise thing is real, i just clip mine to a tent stake now, way easier than finding a rock every time. what antenna setup were you running exactly, just curious if it was an end fed or something else

yeah the KX2 is basically made for this stuff. ive been doing POTA more than SOTA just because im lazy about hiking but the operating is the same vibe. 11 contacts is a solid first run dont let anyone tell you different