so i finally did my first activation last weekend at a state forest about 45 minutes from my house, KFF-something i forget the exact number offhand. been meaning to do this for months and just never got around to it. brought my KX2 and a random wire up in a tree, nothing fancy.

managed 12 contacts in about an hour and a half which i guess is enough to count as a valid activation? i kept second guessing myself on that. the hunters were super friendly on the air, one guy even slowed way down when he heard me struggling a bit with the pileup. didnt expect that at all honestly.

couple things i wasnt sure about - do i need to log the park reference in every single contact or just once when i upload to the POTA website? and also is there a good way to spot yourself if you dont have cell service out there? my phone had zero bars and i couldnt self-spot, not sure if that hurt me or not. ended up just calling CQ for a while and people found me eventually but felt like i was shouting into the void for the first few minutes.

anyway it was a blast and im already planning the next one, thinking about trying SSB next time since i was doing CW this time around

congrats on the first one, 12 contacts is definitely enough - you only need 10 to make it count so you had some breathing room there. for the logging question, you just need to enter the park reference once when you upload your ADIF to the pota.app site, it applies to the whole log automatically. dont stress about logging it per contact in your field log or anything like that.

the spotting thing is a real issue in spots with no cell. a lot of activators carry a little satellite messenger like a Garmin inReach just for that purpose, you can send a spot via satellite to the POTA system. otherwise some folks will pre-announce their activation on the POTA website before they go out so hunters know to look for them, that helps a lot even without real time spotting. or if you have a buddy who can monitor your frequency from home they can spot you on your behalf once they hear you. the hunters will find you eventually either way but yeah those first few minutes of CQing into nothing is a bit unnerving at first haha

SSB is fun too, usually way faster QSO rate once you get a pileup going. good luck on the next one

im in almost the exact same boat, did my second activation like two weeks ago. the self spotting thing tripped me up my first time too. what i do now is just text my wife before i leave and she spots me on pota.app from home once i tell her im on frequency. feels a little silly but it works perfectly and she doesnt even have to know anything about radio lol