so i finally did my first activation last weekend, been chasing for about 8 months and kept putting off actually going up a summit myself because i wasnt sure i had the right gear or enough confidence with the radio side of things. ended up doing W4T/SU-001 which is one of the easier ones near me, not super remote but still counts and i figured better to start simple.

brought my KX2 and a simple end fed that i threw up into a tree, took maybe 20 minutes to get set up which i was pretty happy with. ended up making 14 contacts on 20m which was way more than the 4 i needed to qualify the summit. even got spotted on SOTAwatch which helped a ton, i had posted an alert the night before which apparently is the right move.

anyway my question is mostly about reference numbers -- like when i log it on the SOTA database do i just put W4T/SU-001 exactly like that? and also does CW count double points or is that only for certain awards? ive been reading the general rules but some of it is a bit confusing still. also is there any etiquette around calling CQ SOTA vs just working whoever calls you after a spot, im not totally sure what the expectation is

congrats on the first one, that feeling when the pile starts calling you is pretty hard to beat honestly. yes the reference goes in exactly as you have it, W4T/SU-001, the database is pretty specific about formatting and itll throw an error if something is off so youll know. the CW bonus points thing -- yeah there is a bonus for CW contacts but its for the mountain goat and shack sloth awards progress, not for qualifying the summit itself, any 4 contacts on any mode gets you the activation points. somebody will correct me if im wrong on the specifics but thats my understanding after a couple years of doing this.

on the etiquette question, posting an alert is definitely the right call and you already figured that out. once youre spotted most of the chasers will find you so you just keep calling CQ SOTA with your reference and work whoever comes. some guys announce the reference every couple of calls which is helpful for chasers logging it. dont stress too much about it, you kinda figure it out as you go

W4T/SU-001 is a nice one for a first activation, good choice. I did my first on a similar easy summit and was really glad I didn't try to be a hero and pick something remote right off the bat. One thing I'll add -- make sure you're logging the time in UTC in the database, caught me out my first couple submissions and had to go back and fix them. Sounds obvious but when you're excited after coming off the hill it's easy to just type in local time without thinking.