so ive been chasing summits for about 8 months now and finally decided to just do it and activate one myself. going up W4T/SU-017 tomorrow morning, planning to take my FT-818 and a random wire antenna i made from a kit, along with a 4ah lipo and my phone for the SOTA spotter app. signed up on SOTAwatch3 and posted an alert for around 10am local on 40m ssb and maybe 2m fm if anyone local is around.

my main worry is honestly just whether i'll get my 4 contacts. i know thats the minimum but what if nobody hears me or the band is dead? also not sure if i should call CQ on a clear frequency or if there's like an agreed calling freq people check. i did read the general summit to summit stuff but it all still feels a little overwhelming when you're actually about to do it for the first time. anyway any advice from people who've done a bunch of these would be great, leaving at 6am so i have time before the activation window opens

you'll be fine, honestly. 40m is almost never dead during the day and if your alert is on SOTAwatch the chasers WILL find you. like there's a whole community of people just sitting at home waiting for alerts to pop up, they call themselves chasers for a reason haha. just pick a frequency that sounds clear, listen for a bit, then call CQ SOTA and give your summit reference clearly. W4T/SU-017 is easy to say so thats good. some guys mumble the reference and the chasers have to ask three times.

oh and dont stress about the 4 contacts minimum, most activations i've done i had 10+ in the log before i even started to worry. the hard ones are the obscure summits with low point values that nobody cares about, yours should have decent activity. take a notepad for paper logging as backup in case your phone dies, trust me on that one. good luck and post how it went

14.285 and 7.285 are pretty common starting points but honestly just find a clear freq and announce it on the spotter app when you're on the air. the SOTAwatch self-spot thing is what gets the pile up going. I was so nervous on my first one too and ended up with like 22 contacts so dont overthink it. also bring more water than you think you need, nothing worse than being stuck on a summit with a dead battery AND dehydration lol