so i finally did my first activation last weekend, took a hike up W4T/SU-017 with my KX2 and a end fed half wave thrown up in a tree. got 5 contacts which i know is the minimum but man it was harder than i thought to get people to respond. i was calling CQ SOTA on 40m for like 20 minutes before anyone came back to me and honestly i was starting to think i had something wrong with the setup.

a few things im confused about still. the summit reference, do i need to post my activation on sotawatch before i go or can i just log it after the fact? i spotted myself once using my phone but the signal up there was pretty sketchy. also does the contact have to be two way voice or can i work someone who is doing CW if im on SSB, like does that count for both of us?

also one of the guys who came back to me said he was a chaser and gave me his callsign and a signal report really fast and then just disappeared, is that normal? felt a little abrupt but i guess thats just how it works. anyway i want to do another one soon, thinking about trying 20m next time since 40m seemed pretty dead that morning. any tips appreciated

congrats on the first activation, 5 contacts is all you need so that one counts. to answer your questions -- you dont have to pre-spot but it helps a LOT. chasers watch sotawatch like hawks and if you post an alert the day before saying youll be on W4T/SU-017 around 10am on 40m SSB you will get a pile up pretty quick, way easier than cold calling CQ for 20 minutes. that said you can absolutely log it after the fact if you forget or the signal was bad, just go into the sota database and enter the contacts manually. the system doesnt care when you upload as long as the date and summit ref are right.

and yes the cross mode thing is fine, if you work a CW station while youre on SSB it counts as a valid QSO for both of you. the contact just needs to be a legitimate two-way exchange. the chaser thing is totally normal by the way, they're often working multiple activators and chasing points so they keep it short. dont take it personally, theyre actually doing you a favor by being efficient when youve got a queue of people waiting.

20m is great for SOTA if you activate mid morning, you can pull in chasers from way further out and sometimes get S2S contacts with people on summits in other states or even Europe if conditions are decent.

yeah the chasers move fast, i was confused by that too my first couple activations. some of them are really experienced and have like hundreds or thousands of chases logged so they have a whole routine. once you get a few more under your belt and start pre-alerting on sotawatch it gets way more fun because you actually have people waiting for you when you summit.

also dont sleep on 2m if you have a handheld, sometimes if 40 is being weird a quick CQ on 146.52 will get you a local chaser especially if theres anyone within line of sight of the summit. saved me once when my antenna situation was a mess and i just needed that 5th contact to qualify.