so ive been chasing SOTA for about 8 months now and finally decided to stop just sitting at home logging chasers and actually get up on a summit myself. planned my first activation for saturday, going up W4T/SU-001 which is only about a 2 mile hike so figured it would be a decent starter summit before i try anything crazy.

my plan is to run my FT-818 with a 40m linked dipole thrown up in an inverted V off a 20 foot mast. im a little confused about the activation zone though - i know it says within 25 meters vertical of the true summit but like, does that mean i need to actually be at the top or can i set up a bit below if the trees are better for antenna support? the summit itself looks pretty exposed from the photos i found on sotl.as.

also wondering if i should bother alerting on SOTAwatch before i go or if its not really necessary for a lower point summit. dont want to show up and have nobody listening honestly. any tips from people who have done a bunch of these would be great

definitely post the alert, even for lower point summits. i was nervous about that exact same thing my first time out and ended up with 12 contacts in the log within the first 20 minutes because people had seen the alert on SOTAwatch and were waiting. the chasers are really active and a lot of them run software that pings them when a new alert goes up. even a 1-pointer will get attention if people see it ahead of time.

on the activation zone question - yeah you can set up anywhere within that 25 vertical meter band below the summit, you dont have to be standing on the absolute peak. just make sure you can confirm you're within the zone, some people use their GPS app for that. honestly on an exposed summit having a bit of shelter below the treeline for your antenna supports isnt cheating, plenty of activators do it. the RF still gets out just fine. have fun up there, first activation is a great feeling when those contacts start rolling in

oh man W4T/SU-001 is a good choice for a first one, ive driven past that area a few times. one thing i'll add - bring way more water than you think you need and maybe throw a backup battery in the pack even if you think your main one is enough. i killed my LiFePO4 faster than expected on my second activation because i was also running a phone for logging and forgot i had screen brightness cranked all the way up. learned that the hard way lol

also dont stress too much about 40m vs other bands, but if propagation is weird that day having even a simple wire cut for 20m as a backup isnt a bad idea. some days 40 is wall to wall and some days its just noise. good luck saturday