so i finally did my first activation last weekend at a state park about 45 minutes from me, K-2345 or whatever the reference is, and honestly it was way more chaotic than i expected but in a good way i think. I brought my FT-891 and a random wire antenna i threw up in a tree and it took me like 40 minutes just to get a decent SWR reading. by the time i was actually on the air i only had maybe an hour and a half of daylight left.

ended up making 11 contacts on 40m before the battery started getting sketchy on me, which i know isnt enough to actually count as a valid activation (need 10 so i barely squeaked by actually), and a couple of the hunters i worked were super patient with me while i fumbled around figuring out the logging. i was using HAMRS on my phone and kept accidentally hitting the wrong buttons with cold fingers.

anyway the whole point of this post is just to say if you've been on the fence about trying an activation, just go do it. it's a little overwhelming the first time but the people on the air were really encouraging. gonna try again next month and hopefully bring a better battery situation and maybe practice setting up the antenna before i actually go out there

congrats on the first one, 11 contacts is honestly a solid debut especially if conditions werent great. i remember my first activation i got skunked on 40 because there was some kind of weird absorption going on and i ended up barely scraping by on 17m with a handful of SSB contacts. the battery thing is real though, i fried myself a couple times before i started bringing a dedicated 20Ah LiFePO4 just for radio stuff. seems like overkill but it means i never have to think about it anymore.

also if you havent already, post your activation to the POTA website before you go so hunters can spot you on the map, makes a huge difference in how fast the pile-up forms. some people get 50 contacts in an hour that way. good luck on the next one

yeah HAMRS is a bit fiddly when its cold out, i switched to RumLog on my old iPad and it helped a lot just because the buttons are bigger. some folks use paper logs and just upload later which honestly doesnt sound like the worst idea for your first few activations when youre already juggling everything else