so i finally did my first summit activation last weekend, took the ft-818 and a linked dipole up W4T/SU-072 which is only like a 2 mile hike but still, wasnt sure how the setup would go. spotted myself on sotawatch before i left the car which felt weird but apparently thats just what you do. ended up with 14 contacts on 20m and a handful on 40 before the clouds rolled in and i figured id better get down before it got sketchy. the whole thing took maybe 90 minutes on the summit and honestly i was expecting it to be way more of a hassle than it was. the linked dipole over a random tree branch works way better than i thought it would for something that took 10 minutes to throw up.

nice work on the first one, that summit isnt bad at all for getting your feet wet. i did my first activation on a similar one and yeah spotting yourself feels wrong at first but you get used to it pretty quick. the chasers are usually pretty patient too which helps when youre still figuring out the flow. one thing i started doing is bringing a small notepad just for logging on the summit because fumbling with the phone log when its windy is annoying as heck

14 contacts is solid for a first time, i think i got like 6 on mine and was thrilled lol. what was your antenna height roughly, just curious because ive been going back and forth on whether to bother trying to get it higher or just accept whatever the trees give me