so i finally did my first Parks on the Air activation last weekend at a state park about 45 minutes from my house. ive been hunting other peoples activations for a few months and figured it was time to actually get out there and do one myself. brought my KX3 and a random wire up in a tree, nothing fancy.

the problem was i completely underestimated how long it takes to actually get 10 contacts when the band is being weird. i was on 40m for like an hour and change and signals kept fading in and out, pretty sure the wire wasnt up high enough honestly. ended up with 12 contacts total over maybe 90 minutes which i know qualifies but man it felt harder than i expected. nobody told me how much patience this takes lol

anyway i logged it through the POTA app and submitted, waiting on it to show up on the site. K-4821 for anyone wondering. did anyone else have a rough first activation or was it just me being unprepared

12 contacts is 12 contacts, activation is valid, congrats on the first one. honestly my first time out was a disaster too - forgot my coax adapter and had to MacGyver something out of what was in my truck. i think most peoples first few activations are kind of a mess while you figure out your kit and what actually works in the field.

40m can be brutal depending on time of day and where you are in the solar cycle right now. a lot of folks have been moving to 20m during the afternoon hours and having better luck getting quick pileups. also if you can get that wire even 5 or 6 feet higher it makes a surprising difference, i use a slingshot and fishing line to get mine up around 30 feet when i can and its night and day compared to when i was just slinging it over whatever branch i could reach by hand.

once you get a few under your belt the rhythm of it clicks and you can knock out 10 contacts in like 20 minutes on a good day. the first one is always the hardest.

oh man yeah my first activation i forgot to actually spot myself on the POTA website and just sat there calling CQ for like 20 minutes wondering why nobody was coming back to me. somebody finally hunted me down by luck i think. spotting yourself or having someone do it for you on pota.app is huge, once you're spotted the hunters find you pretty fast usually