so i finally dragged myself up W4C/EM-006 last weekend with my KX2 and a random wire i threw together the night before. took me like 45 minutes longer than expected because i took the wrong trail and ended up bushwhacking through some nasty stuff with the pack on. anyway got to the summit and immediately the wind was just ridiculous, i couldnt keep the antenna wire from wrapping around everything.

managed to get 4 contacts on 20m SSB before my hands were too cold to really operate, qualified the summit technically but i felt like i barely knew what i was doing. one of the guys who called in asked if i was running QRP and i said yeah 10 watts and he laughed and said it sounded like i was next door. so thats something i guess. anyone else have a rough first activation and still stick with it?

yeah my first one was a disaster too, forgot my coax adapter and had to just kind of jury rig something with an alligator clip. got my 4 contacts but it was embarrassing. you'll get the system dialed in pretty quick honestly, after a few times you kind of develop a standard kit that just works and you stop second guessing everything.

wind is always the enemy up high, i started using a short telescoping mast and a linked dipole instead of random wire and that helped a lot with the tangling problem. also fingerless gloves are a gamechanger for keying and writing in the log when its cold.

4 contacts counts, a summit is a summit lol. i did one last spring where i literally sat in the rain for an hour and only worked 3 stations on 40m before i gave up and the summit didnt even qualify. hiked back down soaking wet with nothing to show for it. still went back the next month tho