So i finally did my first activation last weekend at a state park about 45 minutes from my house, been putting it off for months because i kept telling myself i needed better gear or whatever. Ended up just throwing the KX2 in a bag with my end fed and a little tripod mast and just went for it.

Got there around 10am, took maybe 20 minutes to get set up which is longer than i wanted but the wind was being annoying. Spotted myself on the POTA app and then just started calling CQ POTA on 40m. First contact came in maybe 3 minutes later which honestly surprised me, i was half expecting to sit there forever.

Ended up with 23 QSOs in about an hour and a half, mostly 40m with a few on 20m when 40 started getting crowded. Logged everything on paper and then uploaded to the POTA website that night. All good so far.

My questions are kind of dumb but here goes - does it matter what time of day you go out? i went mid morning on a saturday and it seemed fine but wondering if there are better windows. Also the park i went to has two different reference numbers, like its a state park AND a national forest overlap or something, can i count both with the same contacts or do i have to do separate activations? i looked at the rules but got confused.

Congrats on the first one, 23 QSOs is a solid activation especially on your first go. The time of day thing depends a lot on the bands you're using and honestly just what else is going on that day. Mid morning saturday is actually pretty good because youve got hunters in Europe still up on 20m and domestic hunters are awake and watching the spots. I tend to avoid activating late afternoon on weekdays just because the bands get weird and there arent as many hunters active. Early morning can be magic sometimes though if you catch the right propagation.

The two reference number thing - yes you can absolutely count both with the same contacts as long as you're physically in the overlap area. You log both park references in your log and upload them as separate activations on the POTA website, but the actual QSOs can be the same ones. So those 23 contacts could count toward activating both parks simultaneously. Just make sure you're clear you were actually in the overlap, some parks are adjacent but not actually overlapping and that matters. Worth double checking on the POTA website for those specific references, they have maps now that help a lot.

yeah what he said about the dual reference thing, i did that by accident my second activation and had to figure out the upload process but its not bad once you do it once. also 23 contacts first time out is really good i only got 11 on mine and spent way too long trying to figure out why my antenna wasnt resonating (spoiler: i had set it up wrong). the KX2 is a great rig for this by the way, ive seen so many activators using them