John Johnson

congrats on the first activation, that's always the hardest one to get done honestly. to answer your POTA question, yes if your reference is a POTA AND WWFF reference then you can submit the log to both programs and it counts for both. a lot of US references overlap like that so you're probably fine. just make sure you're submitting in the right format to each one because they're slightly different. for spotting, wwff.us has a self-spotting tool and there's also the WWFF logger which lets you spot yourself while you're operating which is really handy if you have cell service out there. the hunter community for WWFF is a bit more international in my experience, i get a lot of European hunters when im on 20m in the morning, so spotting on the WWFF system specifically does seem to pull in different people than just the POTA spots. worth doing both if you can manage it. paper log to digital is totally fine, i did that for my first several activations. just double check your callsigns when you're transcribing, thats where mistakes sneak in

I own both and use the 891 exclusively for POTA now. The receiver is surprisingly good - not 7300 level but more than adequate for field work. The real advantage is the integrated CAT/audio interface and that 100W gets through when QRP won't.

That sounds like a grounding issue or nearby conductor interaction. Try checking your coax routing and ensure the feedline drops vertically away from the antenna for at least one wavelength before any bends. Also verify all element connections are tight - I've seen Chinese Yagis ship with loose hardware.

might be worth checking if icom has any service bulletins on this, i vaguely remember something about audio path issues on early production runs but i could be mixing that up with a different model. if it's still under warranty obviously send it in, icom's turnaround isn't terrible.

congrats on the first activation, 44 QSOs in the field is a solid outing especially on 25w. so yeah you're right about the number — WWFF does require 44 contacts to qualify an activation, hence why that number felt oddly specific, it's not a coincidence haha. it's kind of a fun thing where the number references the program name in a roundabout way. for spotting, wwff has its own cluster at wwff.us and there's also the WWFF logger which some folks use in the field. that said plenty of activators use the POTA spotter too since a lot of the hunter community overlaps and people are watching both. you probably got good coverage doing it that way honestly. for log submission you'll want to export an ADIF from HAMRS — it does do ADIF export, just dig around the menus — and then upload through the wwff.us portal. the format is pretty standard, i havent had issues with HAMRS exports in the past. just make sure your reference number is in there correctly and double check the date.