so i finally did my first summit activation last weekend, W4V/SH-001, figured itd be easy since its not a super high prominence peak but man i was not ready for how windy it gets up there. i had my elecraft kx2 and a wire antenna i threw together the night before, some kind of end fed thing i copied off a youtube video, and it kept wanting to blow sideways the whole time. managed to get 4 contacts which is technically enough to activate but two of them i could barely hear and im still not sure they got my callsign right. also forgot to bring enough water which was just dumb on my part. anyway i think im hooked though, already looking at peaks closer to home to try again. anyone else have a disaster first activation story

haha yeah my first one i forgot the coax connector for the antenna so i literally had to hold the wire against the SO-239 with my thumb for like 20 minutes while i made contacts. not my finest moment. but yeah four contacts counts, a summit is a summit, dont let anyone tell you otherwise. the wind thing is real, i always bring an extra bungee or two now to keep the antenna from going completely sideways

i did my first activation on a POTA park actually not a summit but same idea basically. set up took way longer than i thought because i kept second guessing my antenna placement and by the time i was on the air i only had like an hour before i had to pack up. still got the 10 contacts for a valid activation but it was stressful. the kx2 is a great radio for this stuff btw, jealous you have one, im still running a older ft-817 which works fine but the battery situation is annoying