so i finally got out to do my first pota activation last weekend at K-1234 and it was a disaster. brought my ft-891 and a 20m end fed but couldnt get anyone to hear me. kept calling cq pota for like an hour with maybe 2 contacts. saw other people posting huge numbers from the same park so obviously im doing something wrong. antenna was up about 15 feet in a tree, swr was fine on the meter. do i need to be on certain frequencies or what? feeling pretty discouraged right now

dont give up man, first activations are always rough. couple things - what time of day were you there? band conditions have been pretty crappy lately especially on 20m during the day. also are you spotting yourself on the pota website? most hunters are watching the spots and will pile on once they see you. if youre not spotting you might as well be invisible. also try 40m if you have it, usually more active than 20 these days

Yeah I had the same experience my first few times out. The spotting thing is huge - I didnt know about that either at first. Also check if that park actually gets much activity, some parks are just dead zones even with good propagation. Maybe try a more popular park next time to build confidence? I always check the pota database to see recent activity before I pick a spot now. Hang in there it gets better once you figure out the rhythm