so i finally did my first POTA activation yesterday at the state forest about 20 minutes from my house, been putting it off forever because i kept thinking i needed more gear or a better antenna setup or whatever. anyway i threw the KX2 in a backpack with my random wire and a 9:1 unun and drove out there, found a picnic table near the parking lot which felt like cheating but whatever

got 10 contacts in about 45 minutes which i know is the minimum but man the last 3 were a struggle, 40m was getting noisy and i couldnt figure out if it was the antenna or just band conditions. packed up right as it started drizzling. logged everything when i got home and uploaded to the POTA website, showed as valid so i guess it counts lol. anyone else have a rough first activation like this or is it usually smoother

10 contacts is 10 contacts, activation is an activation. my first one i only got like 12 and i was out there for almost 2 hours fumbling with a buddistick that kept falling over. it gets a lot smoother once you stop second guessing the setup and just operate. 40m noise is usually just 40m being 40m honestly, i wouldnt stress it

picnic table near the parking lot is totally fine, ive seen people do activations from their car basically. the purists might grumble but the rules dont say anything about how far you hike lol. congrats on the first one, it really does get easier. i do like 3 or 4 a month now and i still have days where the antenna just refuses to tune and i end up scrambling