so i finally did my first activation last weekend at a state park about 45 minutes from my house, K-4577 if anyone knows it, and overall it went really well i think. got my 10 contacts in about 35 minutes on 40m SSB with my KX2 and a random wire up in a tree. nothing fancy but it worked.

my question is about logging — i was using HAMRS on my phone and it seemed fine but i noticed when i uploaded to the POTA website a couple contacts didnt match up because i guess the hunters were logging slightly different times than me. like a minute or two off. does that actually cause problems with the activation getting validated? i wasnt sure if there was some tolerance built in or if i need to be more careful next time.

also is there any etiquette around calling CQ POTA vs just working a frequency and hoping hunters find you on the spotting network? i spotted myself once but wasnt sure if thats something people do regularly or if it seems weird. felt a little self-promotional lol

congrats on the first one, 35 minutes for 10 contacts on your first go is solid honestly. the time thing is pretty common and yeah there is some tolerance in the system, i think its like plus or minus 30 minutes or something like that, dont quote me on it but ive never had a contact get thrown out over a minute or two difference. the POTA website is pretty forgiving about it as long as the callsigns match up.

and absolutely spot yourself, everyone does it. thats basically how the whole thing works now. if you dont spot yourself you're kind of just hoping someone stumbles across you and that can take forever especially on a weekday. the POTA website has a self-spotting feature built in and most people use apps like POTA Spotter or even the website on their phone. once you're spotted you'll usually start getting a pile pretty quick, sometimes within a minute or two on a busy day. definitely not weird at all.

yeah self spotting is totally normal dont worry about it. i felt the same way the first couple times but literally everybody does it. the hunters are watching the spots page constantly and thats how they find you. if you try to just call CQ without spotting yourself you might sit there for 20 minutes with nothing and then give up thinking no ones around when really theyre all just waiting for a spot to show up.

i use the POTA app on android and it lets you spot yourself directly which is handy. also if you havent already, look up whether your park has any bonus multipliers or if its a rare one, some parks get way more hunters than others just because people are chasing certain references. sounds like you had a good time though which is really the whole point