so i finally did my first activation last weekend at a state park about 45 minutes from home. been putting it off forever because i kept convincing myself i needed more gear or a better antenna or whatever. finally just threw the KX2, a 40m EFHW, and some spare coax in a backpack and went for it.

set up on a picnic table near the parking lot, got the wire up in a tree maybe 20 feet or so (not ideal i know), and just started calling CQ POTA on 40m. took about 4 minutes before my first reply came in and honestly i was shocked, i expected to sit there for an hour being ignored. ended up with 23 QSOs in about 90 minutes which i think is enough to count as a valid activation? i saw somewhere you need 10 minimum.

couple things im still confused about — do i need to self-spot on the POTA website or can someone else spot me, and does it matter if i spot before i start calling or after i already have a frequency. also i had one guy ask me for my park reference number and i gave him the right one but then he said something about also activating and asked if we could do a park-to-park, im still not totally sure what happened there but i logged it. was that a P2P contact and does it count differently somehow for him or for me.

overall it was just really fun and way less stressful than i thought. the whole portable operating thing kind of clicked for me out there in a way it hadnt sitting at the home shack.

congrats on the first one, 23 QSOs is a solid activation especially on a first go. and yeah 10 is the minimum to count it, so you were well clear of that.

on the spotting question — you can self-spot, someone else can spot you, or you can use the POTA app which makes it pretty easy. ideally you spot before you start calling so hunters can find you, but honestly people will still find you even if you spot a few minutes in once you have a frequency nailed down. i usually get set up, do a quick listen to make sure the frequency is clear, then spot and start calling. the spot shows up almost immediately and thats usually when the pileup starts if youre gonna get one.

the park-to-park thing — yeah that was a P2P contact and it absolutely counts for both of you. you each log it as a normal QSO but you note the other persons park reference in your log. when you upload to the POTA website it recognizes P2P contacts and they show up separately on your stats page. some people really chase P2P contacts specifically, theres a whole separate leaderboard for it i think. nothing different about how you operate for it, just make sure you got his park reference logged correctly and youre good.

i just did my third activation last month so im basically a newbie too lol but the spotting thing tripped me up at first also. the POTA app on your phone is honestly the easiest way to handle it, you just plug in your park reference and frequency and it posts the spot for you. way easier than trying to type on the website while also operating.

one thing i'd add is try 20m if 40 ever feels slow, i had a session where 40 was just dead and switched up and got a bunch more contacts including some from pretty far out. depends on time of day obviously but its worth having both options ready if your antenna covers it.