so i finally got around to doing my first activation last weekend on W4T/SU-068, been meaning to do it for like two years and just kept putting it off. i brought my FT-818 and a random wire antenna i threw together the night before, honestly wasnt even sure the antenna was resonant but whatever, needed to test it somehow right

anyway i made it to the summit and set up near some rocks, got the antenna up in an inverted-V configuration strung between my trekking poles, and started calling on 14.285 which i had spotted myself on SOTAwatch before i left the car (had cell service most of the way up). ended up getting 4 contacts which i know is the minimum for the points but i was pretty nervous the whole time and almost missed logging one of them because i was trying to write and talk at the same time

my question is — for the summit reference, does it matter exactly where on the summit you operate from as long as youre within the activation zone? i set up probably 150 feet below the true summit because the wind was brutal up top and there was a decent flat spot lower down. i checked the AZ before i went and thought i was fine but now im second-guessing myself. also is there a way to see if your activation got counted or do you just trust that uploading the log to the database takes care of it

congrats on your first one, that summit is no joke depending on the trail you took. to answer your question yeah the activation zone is typically defined as within 25 vertical meters of the true summit, so as long as you were within that elevation band youre good to go. it doesnt matter if you were slightly off to the side or sheltered behind some rocks, staying out of the wind is just smart operating honestly.

for confirming the activation — once you upload your log to the SOTA database it usually shows up within a day or so on your activator page. you can check sota.org.uk and look at your callsign under the activator section. if the 4 contacts are there and at least one of them was on an HF band (or 2m if thats what you used) it should count. sometimes if a chaser also logs the contact it shows as a confirmed QSO which is a nice little checkmark. sounds like you did everything right to me, 4 contacts on a homebrew antenna on your first time out is a solid start

nice work getting out there, i did my first activation about 8 months ago and was also totally stressed about the logging thing lol. one thing i started doing is bringing a small clipboard with a pre-printed log sheet so i can just write fast and not fumble with a notebook. also for spotting yourself — some people use the SOTA Spotter app if you have cell signal, makes it faster than the website. welcome to the addiction, youre going to want to do another one immediately