so I finally did my first activation last weekend at a state park about 45 minutes from my house, been meaning to do it for months and kept putting it off. I brought my KX2 and a wire antenna, nothing fancy, just wanted to get the 10 contacts and call it done honestly.

well the spot I had picked out from looking at satellite maps turned out to be way more wooded than I expected and I couldn't get a good line for the EFHW I was planning to use. ended up just kind of draping it through some branches at a pretty ugly angle and fired it up. signals were okay I guess but nothing amazing. took me almost an hour to get the 10 contacts on 40m and I was starting to sweat it a little around contact 7 or 8.

anyway it counted and I uploaded the log to the POTA website that night. just wanted to share because I feel like everybody's activation posts online look perfect and I wanted to throw out there that a messy first one is still a valid one. already planning the next one and gonna scout the location better this time. any tips for finding good spots in parks that actually work for wire antennas?

oh man this brings back memories of my first activation, I had the wrong park reference and had to re-upload everything. honestly scouting is the biggest thing and you already figured that out yourself. what I do now is look at the satellite view but also switch to the terrain layer, gives you a better idea of the tree situation. also dont underestimate just walking around for 10-15 minutes when you first arrive before you set anything up. ive wasted so much time setting up in a bad spot when a better one was like 200 feet away.

also for what its worth, 40m was the right call for a first activation. some people try to chase band conditions on their first time out and it just adds stress. get the 10, go home happy, figure out the fancy stuff later.

congrats on the activation! I just started hunting POTA contacts from home a few months ago and I can tell you that when I hear an activator struggling to get contacts I always try to slow down and make sure the exchange is clean. so from the hunter side we're rooting for you haha. good luck on the next one, the park reference is the main thing to double check before you go, I've seen a few activators upload logs to the wrong park and it's kind of a pain to fix apparently.