so im finally doing my first activation tomorrow at a state park about 45 minutes from my house. ive been hunting for a few months now and figured it was time to actually get out there and do one myself. got my KX2 and a 40m end fed that i've been using at home, planning to set it up with a 20 foot painters pole in a tree or something.

my main worry is honestly just making enough contacts. i know you need 10 to count as an activation but what if the band is dead or something? i picked a saturday so hopefully there are hunters out there. also do i need to spot myself or will someone spot me from the POTA hunters facebook group or whatever? ive read the rules like three times but still feel like im missing something obvious

anyway any advice from people who have done these before would be great, even small stuff. kinda nervous but excited

you'll do fine honestly. the hardest part is just getting out there the first time. def spot yourself on pota.app, dont rely on someone else doing it for you especially for your first one. just pull up the app, find your park reference number and log yourself as active, takes about 30 seconds once you know how. and if the frequency is busy just grab something else and respot.

one thing i wish someone told me early on — if 20m feels dead try 40m especially if it's later in the day. and sometimes just calling CQ a few times with no response you think nobody's listening but then boom three stations come back at once. give it more time than you think you need before moving on. good luck tomorrow, let us know how it went

bring more snacks than you think you need lol. also a chair, i tried doing my second activation just kinda crouching next to my rig and my back was done after like 20 minutes. small thing but it makes a huge difference when you're trying to concentrate on logging and operating at the same time.

oh and write down the park reference before you go, i had a moment of panic once where my phone signal was terrible and i couldnt load pota.app to check it. K-xxxx numbers are easy to forget when youre setting up in a field somewhere