so i finally got my first summit picked out and im heading up W4T/SU-001 tomorrow morning. been chasing for about 3 months now and figured it was time to stop being a passenger and actually get up there myself. i have my KX2 and a linked dipole i built last month, tested it in the backyard and it seemed to work okay but obviously that's not the same as being on a windy ridge somewhere.

my plan is to get there early enough to set up before the main activation window and try to self spot via the SOTA spotter app once im ready. i have a summit-to-summit contact list of chasers i know are usually around but honestly im not sure how long it'll take me to hike in — the trail notes say about 45 mins but i've never done this particular one. do i need to worry about alerting vs spotting? i posted an alert last night for around 10am local but if i'm late i dont want people waiting around for nothing.

anyway any advice welcome, even dumb stuff i might be forgetting. i feel like i'm going to get up there and realize i left the coax at home or something

haha the coax thing is a real fear, i literally did that on my second activation. now i have a dedicated SOTA bag that stays packed and i just top off the battery before i go.

on the alert vs spot question — dont stress too much about it. the alert is just a heads up, nobody is sitting there with a stopwatch waiting for you. when you actually get set up and ready, throw out your spot and the pile will come. if you're running late just update the alert time if you can, but even if you dont most chasers understand that mountains don't always cooperate with schedules. the ones who've been doing this a while have hiked enough trails to know a 45 min estimate can turn into an hour fifteen real fast.

one thing i'd say — once you spot yourself, give it maybe 30 seconds and then just start calling CQ SOTA on your chosen frequency. don't wait for someone to find you, just start calling. the response is usually pretty quick and honestly that first contact from a summit is one of the best feelings in the hobby. good luck up there

I'm fairly new to chasing but from that side of things — we really do appreciate the alerts even if timing is off, gives me something to look forward to during the week lol. I'll be listening around 14.062 and the usual SOTA watering holes so maybe I'll catch you for an S2S if I can get out to my summit. What bands are you planning to work?