so i finally did my first activation last weekend, W6 summit up in the sierras, took forever to hike in and by the time i got set up my hands were basically numb. brought the KX2 and a linked dipole i made from that youtube video everyone recommends and honestly the antenna was kind of a mess because i forgot one of the wing nuts at home so i was just kind of holding the connector together with my fingers at one point

managed to get 4 contacts on 20m which is enough to count but barely. one guy gave me a 57 and i think he was being generous. also my phone died so i couldnt use the sota spotter app which made everything harder, had to just call CQ into the void hoping someone was listening

anyway it still counted and i already want to do another one, something went wrong the whole time but it was honestly more fun than any operating ive done from home

haha yeah the first one is always kind of a disaster, i showed up to my first activation with no way to support the antenna and ended up just leaning a fishing pole against a rock and praying. 4 contacts is a valid activation though, a summit is a summit. get a battery pack for the phone situation, i use one of those cheap anker ones and it lasts forever in the field

the sota spotter thing is real, i was doing a POTA run a few months back and had zero cell signal so nobody knew i was even on the air. ended up self spotting via SMS which i didnt even know worked until some guy in the pile told me about it after. still a fun time though honestly operating portable just hits different than sitting in the shack