so i finally did my first activation last weekend, been talking about it forever and just kept putting it off. picked a local summit that was only a 4 pointer just to keep it low pressure, figured id bring the ft-818 and a simple end fed wire and see what happened

the hike up wasnt bad at all maybe 45 minutes but i was carrying way more than i needed to, the radio, spare batteries, a whole bunch of coax i didnt even use, snacks for like 3 days... anyway got to the top and spent probably 20 minutes just trying to figure out where to throw the wire. ended up hanging it off a branch at a pretty bad angle and i think thats why my SWR was all over the place on 40m

managed to get 4 contacts which is the minimum to qualify the summit so it counts officially, but two of those were the same guy chasing twice on different bands which i didnt realize was allowed until he told me. missed a couple calls because i wasnt used to pile-up style operating and fumbled through logging on paper in the wind

next time im going to actually practice setting up the antenna at home first which sounds obvious but here we are. anyone have tips for getting a fast deployment sorted out? also whats a realistic antenna to bring that doesnt weigh anything but still performs decently on 40 and 20?

congrats on the first one, 4 contacts is 4 contacts and it counts, thats the important thing. the antenna thing is totally normal for first activations, ive seen experienced ops spend half their activation time fighting a wire that wont cooperate

honestly the thing that made the biggest difference for me was switching to a linked dipole, you can cut it for a couple bands and the links take about 5 seconds to swap. some people like the EFHW transformers with a single wire and those work great too if your matchbox is decent. the SOTAbeams stuff is popular and reasonably light but you can also just wind your own, theres nothing magic about it

one other thing -- next time post your activation on SOTAwatch before you go. even just a rough time window. the chasers watch that religiously and youll have people listening for you before you even finish setting up, makes a huge difference for getting that pile started

the dual chaser thing threw me off too my first time, didnt realize a chaser can log you on every band and mode, its just from your side that each summit only counts once. the community is really nice about explaining stuff though, most chasers are super patient with new activators

also dont stress too much about the SWR, the 818 can handle a bit of mismatch and 4 contacts from a wire hung wrong off a tree branch is honestly pretty impressive for a first go