so i finally got around to trying my first wwff activation last weekend at a local state park. brought my ft-891 and a random wire antenna i threw up in a tree. was on 20m mostly but only made like 6 contacts in 3 hours which seems really bad?? i know the band conditions werent great but still. saw other activators posting way better numbers. do i need to be on multiple bands or what am i missing here. also wasnt sure if i needed to announce the park reference number every time or just when people ask

6 contacts isnt too bad for a first go honestly, especially if conditions were rough. the key thing with wwff is getting spotted - did you use the wwff database or at least get on dx cluster? most chasers are looking for new parks so if they dont know youre there you'll sit calling cq forever. also yeah definitely announce your reference number regularly, like every few cqs. helps people know what park youre activating

what park were you at? some locations just dont propagate as well even with good antennas. i've done probably 30 wwff activations now and my worst was only 4 qsos at a park that was down in a valley. but my best was 47 contacts in 2 hours at a hilltop location. elevation really matters more than people think. also try calling on different parts of the band, sometimes 14.230 is dead but 14.205 is hopping