so i finally did my first activation last weekend, went up to a local W4 summit that wasnt too hard of a hike, maybe 45 minutes from the trailhead. took my KX2 and a linked dipole and honestly it went way smoother than i expected. made 4 contacts on 40m SSB and then remembered i should try CW and squeezed out a couple more on 20m before the clouds started looking sketchy.

but here i am with a bunch of questions nobody really answered in the videos i watched. first - when im posting a spot on SOTAwatch, how far in advance should i do it? i put mine up like 20 minutes before i actually got on the air and i think some people were waiting and gave up. also is there a standard way to call? i was just using my normal SSB calling frequency but i wasnt sure if thats what everyone does.

oh and the summit reference thing - im still a little fuzzy on how the whole points system works for activators vs chasers. like do chasers get points every time they work a new activator on the same summit or only the first time? sorry if these are dumb questions, theres a lot to learn with this program

not dumb questions at all, those tripped me up too when i started. the spot timing thing - honestly 20 min is fine but some activators post the night before or even days ahead so chasers can plan. if youre doing a same-day spot i'd say 30-45 min ahead is kind of the sweet spot, gives people time to see it and actually get to their radio. the SOTAwatch alerts vs spots thing is a bit confusing at first too, alerts are planned ahead of time, spots are real-time when youre actually on frequency.

for calling frequency on SSB most activators just pick something close to the standard calling freq for that band and then move slightly, like on 40m youll hear a lot of action around 7.290 in North America but honestly it varies. some guys post their exact freq in the spot which helps a ton.

and yeah chasers only get points for a summit once per calendar year i believe, not once per activator. so if 3 different people activate the same summit in the same year, a chaser only logs the first one for credit. activators on the other hand get points every time they activate as long as they get the minimum 4 QSOs. congrats on the first one though, 6 contacts is solid for a first outing

nice work getting out there. the KX2 is such a good choice for this, ive seen people haul full rigs up summits and its just... why lol. what antenna setup were you using with the linked dipole, did you have a mast or just threw it in a tree? im trying to figure out what to bring for my first one and antenna support is the thing i keep going back and forth on