so ive been chasing SOTA for about 8 months now and finally decided to just do my first activation. picked out a W6 summit thats only a 2 mile hike, nothing crazy, rated at 4 points i think. got my KX2 and a linked dipole im borrowing from a club buddy and im planning to run 10 watts on 40 and maybe 20 if propagation cooperates.

couple things im not totally sure about — do i need to be at the actual trigpoint or just within the activation zone? i looked it up and i think the zone is within 25 vertical meters of the summit but i want to make sure im not doing it wrong. also is it worth setting up on 2m FM just to grab some local chasers or is HF where most of the action is these days. and the selfspotter thing on SOTAwatch, do i use that from my phone before i start calling CQ or after i make my first contact, i keep seeing different things.

sorry for all the questions, just dont want to drive 3 hours and mess something up basic

You're way more prepared than most people doing their first activation honestly. The activation zone thing — yeah 25 vertical meters of the summit, doesnt have to be the exact top, which is good because sometimes the actual peak is just a pile of rocks with no room to set up. As long as youre within that zone youre good to log it.

For spotting, i usually self-spot right when im set up and ready to start calling, so chasers have a few seconds to tune in. Some people spot a bit before they even key up. Either way works fine just dont spot and then make them wait 20 minutes while you finish setting up your antenna or theyll move on.

2m FM is honestly really worth it if you have anything that covers it, grabbed 3 quick contacts on a handheld once when 40m was just dead and it saved the activation. You only need 4 QSOs to qualify the summit so mixing modes and bands is totally fine. Good luck, first one is always a bit chaotic but thats half the fun.

oh man i was in the same spot last spring, did my first activation on a summit in W4 and i was so nervous i forgot to log two of my contacts properly lol. it all worked out but yeah just bring a paper log as backup even if youre using an app. the SOTA Spotter app is what most people seem to use now for self spotting, works fine as long as you have any cell signal at the summit, which isnt always guaranteed so worth checking beforehand on the sota mapping stuff.