so i finally got around to trying my first summit activation yesterday. picked a local 2 pointer that looked easy on the map but man was i wrong about that hike. anyway got to the top after about 2 hours of scrambling through brush and rocks with my ft-817 and a 20m dipole

setup went ok i guess but i could only manage 3 contacts in about 45 minutes before my battery started dying. is this normal for a first timer or did i mess something up? heard plenty of people calling but couldnt seem to get through the pileups. one guy told me my signal was pretty weak but readable

thinking maybe i need a better antenna or more power but dont want to carry too much weight up these mountains. any tips from the sota folks here?

3 contacts is totally fine for a first activation, dont worry about it! i remember my first one was pretty rough too. the ft-817 is great for sota but 5 watts doesnt always cut through especially on 20m during busy times. try 40m or even 15m if its open - less competition usually

for antenna i'd suggest looking into an end fed half wave, theyre super lightweight and perform way better than a dipole in my experience. also make sure you're spotting yourself on sotawatch, makes a huge difference for getting chasers to find you

yeah the hiking part always gets me too lol. which summit did you do? i'm new to sota myself but been chasing for a few months now and notice some activators have much stronger signals than others even with same power levels

one thing ive heard is antenna height really matters - get that thing as high as you can even if its just throwing the wire over a tree branch or something. also check your swr, bad match will kill your signal fast with only 5 watts to work with