so i finally did my first SOTA activation last weekend, W4V/SH-001 up in the Shenandoah area, and honestly it was kind of a mess but i had a blast. packed way too much gear like always, my back was killing me by the time i got to the summit. ended up using the KX2 with a random wire just thrown up into a tree, nothing fancy at all.

got my 4 contacts which i guess is all you need to count it but man the band conditions were rough, 40m was pretty much garbage by the time i set up so i scrambled over to 20 and found a few takers pretty quick. one guy spotted me on sotawatch before i even asked which was cool, somebody must have been watching the reflector or something.

anyway the whole thing took like 3 hours roundtrip and i was completely wiped out but already looking at the next one. anybody else do their first activation and feel like they had no idea what they were doing the whole time

yeah my first one i forgot my coax adapter and spent 20 minutes digging through my pack like an idiot. ended up making it work with some electrical tape holding things together which i dont recommend but hey, got the 4 contacts. the sotawatch spotter thing is a lifesaver honestly, once you get comfortable just put yourself on before you even leave the car and chasers will be waiting when you get up there

40m in the afternoon is rough for sure, i usually just go straight to 20 now for SOTA unless im doing it early morning. also if you have the KX2 you should try running a little more power than barefoot if the battery can handle it, sometimes that extra couple db makes the difference when bands are sketchy. congrats on the first one though, it gets way more efficient once you do a few and figure out your system