so i finally did my first ever SOTA activation last weekend, been wanting to do one for like two years and kept putting it off. picked a 1 point summit not too far from home, W6/NC-420 if anyone knows it, figured id start easy before trying anything serious. packed my ft-818 and a homebrew EFHW that i strung up between two trees which honestly took way longer than expected because i forgot how annoying that can be on an unfamiliar summit with wind.

anyway got 4 contacts which i know is the minimum to actually claim the activation but man it was harder than i thought. SSB on 40m got me two contacts pretty quick then it kinda died, tried 20m and got two more after calling for like 10 minutes. i had spotted myself on SOTAwatch before i left the car but i think the timing was off by the time i actually got set up. next time im going to bring a phone mount so i can update the spot from the summit itself.

is there a good way to find out who the regular chasers are in a given region? i feel like if i knew who was listening id have an easier time. also should i bother with CW? im just a technician... wait no i upgraded to general last spring, just old habits. anyway any tips welcome, im hooked already even though it was kind of a mess lol

congrats on the first activation, 4 contacts counts and thats what matters. the spotting timing thing is real, i made that mistake constantly when i started. now i spot myself about 10 minutes before i think ill actually be ready, gives chasers time to see it and tune around. also make sure your summit reference is right in the spot, ive seen activators put the wrong reference and the chasers just cant find them in the logs later which is annoying for everyone.

for finding chasers, honestly just hang around the SOTAwatch alerts page and you start to see the same callsigns over and over. there are some really dedicated chasers who are on almost every day. once you get a few activations under your belt you'll recognize them. and yeah do CW eventually, you dont have to rush it but a 5 watt rig on CW can pull in chasers that just cant hear you on SSB, especially on a noisy summit or when conditions are rough. the SOTA reflector on groups.io is also worth joining, lots of good info there

nice one, i remember my first activation being kind of chaotic too. i forgot my coax adapter and had to improvise with some wire and a lot of hope. it worked somehow. the 818 is a solid choice for portable ops, heavy-ish compared to some stuff but it just works.

one thing i'd add is try checking if there's a local SOTA group or club near you, some areas have guys who coordinate activations together which makes the whole thing way less stressful the first few times. and dont stress too much about CW right away, phone is totally fine, plenty of activators never touch CW and still rack up hundreds of summits