so i finally did my first summit activation last weekend, W4G/NG-012 up in north georgia, been putting it off forever because i wasnt sure if my setup was gonna cut it. ended up just throwing the KX2 in a pack with a 40m EFHW wound around a piece of pvc and hiked up saturday morning. took maybe 45 mins to get to the top and honestly the whole thing went smoother than any of my home station operating ever does which is kind of embarrassing to admit

made 14 contacts in like 25 minutes, got my 4 for the activation no problem, stayed for another bit just because the band conditions were actually decent and why not. the hardest part was getting the wire up in the trees, brought a throw bag but the first toss went sideways and tangled pretty bad. eventually got it sorted. pack weight was around 18 lbs which i want to cut down before next time but for a first run it was fine

anyway if youve been on the fence about trying it just go do it, the chasers are super helpful and patient, i was a little slow on logging and nobody seemed annoyed

that summit is a good one for a first activation, not too brutal of a hike. i did it a couple years back with a buddipole and regretted every ounce of it by the time i got to the top lol. the EFHW is definitely the move for SOTA, i use a 49:1 unun and just random wire now and it works fine on 40 and 20 with a little trimming. 18 lbs is heavy though yeah, once you get it dialed in you can get a SOTA kit down to like 7 or 8 lbs pretty easily if you dont mind a smaller battery

the chasers really are patient i was surprised too when i did my first pota activation at a state park near me. i was fumbling around with my logging app and a guy just waited on frequency for me to get sorted, didnt even say anything just came back when i was ready. made me feel alot better about the whole thing. what logging app were you using for sota, im still trying to figure out if i should use goat log or just paper