so I finally did my first parks on the air activation last weekend at a state park about 40 minutes from me (K-4577 for anyone curious) and wow there is a lot more to it than I expected. I spent way too long trying to find a decent spot with tree cover but also not so much tree cover that my signal was getting eaten up, ended up just setting up near a picnic table which felt a little boring but whatever it worked.

ran 10 watts with my KX2 and a random wire up in a tree, got on 40 meters around 2pm local and started calling. first like 10 minutes nothing, i was starting to think i'd done something wrong. then boom all of a sudden i had a pileup going which was kind of overwhelming honestly. forgot to log two contacts because i was flustered and trying to keep up. ended up with 22 qsos which i guess counts for the activation but i felt bad about the ones I missed.

anyway does anyone have tips for staying organized when you suddenly get a pile of hunters calling at once? im used to pretty relaxed ragchew stuff and this felt like a whole different mode. also should i have spotted myself earlier? i waited until i had my antenna up and was ready but saw some people spot themselves before they're even fully set up?

congrats on the activation, 22 contacts is solid especially running 10 watts. the pile thing gets easier I promise. what helped me most was just slowing down and working one call at a time, even if it feels like you're leaving people waiting. call for partial calls too like "station ending in romeo go ahead" and that cuts through the chaos a bit.

on the spotting question -- yeah most folks spot on POTA.app as soon as they're on frequency and ready to transmit, not necessarily before. some people spot a little early with an ETA in the comments but that can cause hunters to camp the freq before youre ready. id say spot when your ready to transmit your first CQ. also make sure your logging something, even paper works fine, you can transfer to the POTA app later. dont stress the two missed contacts, honestly happens to everyone especially when a pileup hits out of nowhere.

dude i had almost the exact same experience on my first one lol. i was running a ft-891 at like 25w and still felt totally unprepared for people calling all at once. i think the silence before the pileup is just the hunters seeing your spot and getting to their radios, theres kind of a lag. now i know to just keep calling even if the first few minutes are quiet.

one thing that really helped me was using a notebook with just three columns -- callsign, signal report, band. super basic but it keeps you from freezing up trying to remember what to type into an app while someones calling you. you can upload it all later.