so I finally did my first activation last weekend at a state park about 45 minutes from my house, K-4812 if anyone knows it. I had been watching videos and reading posts about POTA for months and kept telling myself id just do it already, so Saturday morning I threw the KX2 and a end-fed halfwave in the truck and drove out there.

Setup went fine, got the antenna strung up between two trees maybe 30 feet up at the center, logged into the POTA app to self-spot and thats when I realized I had no cell service in that part of the park. Like zero bars. I ended up just calling CQ on 40 and 20 without spotting myself and managed to get 8 QSOs over about an hour which I know isnt enough to count as a valid activation. kinda bummed about that.

anyway my question is, is there a way to plan around the no cell service thing? I saw something about RBN or maybe a different spotting method but I'm not sure how that works for POTA specifically. or do I just need to find parks with better coverage. feels like I was so close

oh man been there, the cell service thing bites a lot of people the first time out. what you're thinking of is probably the Reverse Beacon Network - when you call CQ on a supported mode it picks up your signal automatically and can trigger a spot on the POTA site without you doing anything on your phone. it works really well on CW and even FT8 if you're set up for that, but for SSB phone you kinda need to either have a buddy spot you or find cell service at the trailhead before you hike in and hope people see it.

also 8 QSOs is frustrating but honestly not far off, you just need 10 to validate. a lot of people will run a few more frequencies or try a second band when theyre getting close to that threshold. 40 meters in the morning is usually pretty good for getting regional hunters but sometimes 20 opens up better depending on time of day. dont give up on that park, go back and get your revenge activation lol

I had the exact same problem at my first activation, different park but same deal with no signal. what I do now is I text a friend who hunts a lot and he spots me manually through the website from his phone. kind of a workaround but it works fine. you just have to coordinate ahead of time so he knows what frequency youre planning to be on and roughly when.

also some people bring a cheap prepaid hotspot device as backup, never tried that myself but ive heard it helps in marginal coverage areas.