so i finally stopped putting it off and drove up to W4V/SH-001 saturday morning, took my KX2 and a random wire antenna i threw together the night before. wasnt sure id even make 4 contacts but ended up with like 14 on 20m SSB before the clouds rolled in and i started worrying about lightning. the hike up wasnt bad maybe 45 minutes but man carrying the radio plus a small folding chair and my lunch plus the antenna stuff adds up fast. i was sweating by the time i hit the summit. anyway the pile up thing is real, people on SOTAwatch see you spot yourself and then they just come to you which is kind of wild when youre used to hunting for contacts. already looking at the next one

yeah the self spotting thing was a game changer for me too when i first started. i was so suprised how fast people come calling once youre on the list. one tip if you havent already, get the SOTA goat app or just watch the reflector the night before because sometimes chasers will actually schedule skeds with you which makes hitting 4 way easier especially if conditions are garbage. also 20m was treating me real well lately too, tried 40 last week and it was a mess of noise

nice, what radio did you end up using? ive been going back and forth on whether the KX2 is worth it over just bringing my FT-818 which i already own lol