so i finally pulled the trigger and did my first activation last weekend up on W4T/SU-064, been lurking on sotawatch for like six months working up the nerve to actually try it. packed way too much gear obviously, my pack was probably 35 lbs and the summit is only like a 2.5 mile approach but still, i was sweating buckets by the time i got to the activation zone.

set up my elecraft kx2 with a linked dipole and got it strung between two trees which took way longer than i expected, wind kept blowing the line back in my face. spotted myself on sotawatch and the pile up started pretty fast actually, managed 12 contacts on 40m before the band went weird on me and i couldn't hear much. switched to 20m and grabbed a few more, ended up with 18 total which is enough to qualify the summit but i really wanted more.

the thing that got me was i forgot to bring a notepad so i was logging on the back of a granola bar wrapper, which worked fine actually but my handwriting was a disaster. anyway the whole thing was worth it, views were incredible and there were two chasers who had been waiting specifically for that summit to be activated so that felt pretty cool. anyone else remember their first activation being kind of chaotic like this?

ha yeah my first one was a total mess too, i showed up without enough coax to get the antenna away from my body and spent half the time wondering why my SWR was so weird. 18 contacts on your first activation is actually really solid, some people struggle to get the 4 minimum when bands arent cooperating. the granola bar wrapper logging is honestly peak SOTA tradition, ive seen people use everything from napkins to their arm.

one thing that helped me a ton after my first few activations was switching to a paper log sheet i print out at home and laminate, fits in the top pocket of the pack and doesnt blow away. also if you havent already, look into the SOTA goat app or sotawatch alerts for pre-spotting yourself before you leave the trailhead if you have cell service, saves a lot of fumbling around at the summit when youre already tired. welcome to the addiction by the way, it only gets worse from here

W4T/SU-064 is a good one, glad you got it activated. Those chasers waiting on a specific summit reference always make me feel like the work was worth it -- I chase pretty regularly from home and there are certain summits I've had alerts set up for literally over a year waiting for someone to get up there.

Don't stress too much about the contact count on your first one, getting the system figured out and coming back down safely is really what matters. The logistics get way smoother after a few trips.