so i finally did my first summit activation last weekend, took the ft-818 and a random wire up a little 2 pointer about an hour from home. wasnt sure id get 4 contacts but ended up with like 11 including two s2s which was a nice surprise. the antenna situation was a mess tho, i was trying to hang the wire off a branch and the wind kept blowing it into the guy wire and i had no idea if it was even resonant but the atu seemed happy enough with it. sat on 20m for most of it and then dropped down to 40 near the end when propagation seemed to get better. honestly the whole thing took maybe 90 minutes including the hike and i kept thinking why did i wait so long to try this

nice work on the s2s contacts, those are always a good feeling especially on a first activation. i usually bring a little linked dipole cut for 40 and 20, way less fussing around than a random wire in my experience. the atu does its job but you lose some efficiency and when youre running qrp every db matters. what summit was it if you dont mind me asking

yeah the waiting too long thing is real lol, i did my first pota activation before i ever tried sota and even that took me forever to actually just go do it. once you do one you realize how not complicated it actually is. 11 contacts on a first go is solid tho, some people struggle to get the 4