so i finally did my first park activation last weekend at a local state park, been meaning to do it for months. packed up the KX2 and my end fed halfwave and figured id be good to go. got out there, found a nice picnic table under some trees, got everything set up and... couldnt get the antenna tuned on 40m at all. turns out i forgot the counterpoise wire at home sitting on my workbench. spent like 20 minutes trying to figure out why the SWR was garbage before i realized. ended up just running 20m which actually worked out ok, made 12 contacts before the battery gave out. so counts as an activation i guess but not what i had in mind

haha yeah that happens to everyone at least once. i once drove an hour to a SOTA summit and forgot my coax. just sat up there eating a sandwich and enjoyed the view. now i have a checklist taped inside my go bag so i dont do that again. 12 contacts on 20m isnt bad at all though honestly, thats a solid first activation

counterpoise got me too on my second time out. i keep a spare zip tied to the antenna now just in case. also 20m has been real good lately so sounds like it worked out despite the trouble