so ive been chasing SOTA for about 8 months now and finally decided to just go do an activation myself. picked out W6/NC-427 which is supposed to be a fairly easy hike, only about a mile and a half in. not trying to do anything crazy for my first one.

my plan is to bring the FT-818 with a 40m EFHW and a small LiFePO4 pack, maybe 6ah. ive seen people say that 40m is usually enough to get your 4 contacts and be done but i was thinking of also bringing a 2m handheld just in case theres any local chasers who might be listening on the calling frequency. does that make sense or is that overkill for a first activation?

also slightly confused about the activation zone - the summit page says the AZ is within 25 meters of the actual peak elevation wise, not horizontal distance right? the actual top of this one is kind of rocky and i dont know if i can set up right on the very tippy top. just want to make sure im not going to get my contacts invalidated or whatever.

any tips from folks whove done a bunch of these would be great, im probably overthinking this

yeah the 25 meters is vertical, so as long as youre within 25m of the summit elevation you're fine. on a lot of summits the actual highest point is just a boulder or something and everyone sets up a little bit off to the side anyway. nobody is going to come check with a GPS, and honestly as long as you're clearly on the summit area youre good. the SOTA rules are pretty reasonable about this stuff.

the 818 and EFHW combo is solid, thats basically what half the activators on the west coast run. 40m should get you 4 contacts no problem especially on a weekend, there are usually a bunch of us sitting on 7.033 or nearby watching the spots. just make sure you self-spot on SOTAwatch or the SOTA Spotter app before you start calling and the pile will come to you pretty fast. taking the HT along is not overkill at all for a first time, gives you a backup and sometimes a local will come out and give you an S2S which is always fun.

have a great activation, this is a really addictive hobby within a hobby fair warning

oh man W6/NC-427 is a nice one for a first activation, pretty chill hike. i did it maybe two years ago. one thing i'll mention is that cell service up there was kinda spotty when i was there so have a backup plan for spotting - some people prepost an alert on SOTAwatch the night before so chasers know to listen for you even if you cant spot live. theres also the APRS spotting thing if your radio does that but i never bothered with it myself.

also just bring more water than you think you need, even on a short hike its warmer up there than you expect in the afternoon