Hi All,
I’m Berthold, DK1BZ, living in a small town nr Frankfurt in the middle of Germany.
I have been licenced since 2018. From the start my main focus has been on outdoor activities.
So I discovered your interesting reflector with a lot of helpful information.
Long time target was to do my first activation in CW.
Last Saturday, I thought it is time to give it a try. I went to DM/HE-053, a tree covered, small summit
and set up my station.
Equipment:
FT 891 set to 20 Watt
LIPO Battery
Linked Dipol for 20, 30 and 40m on 4,5m fishing pole
First, I listened, if there were any SOTA stations activ. I managed to work two s2s qsos without calling cq by myself. Later on, I took a deep breath, and called cq sota on 30m. No response! I have to admit, that I didn’t raise an alert in advance, so expectations were not very high. I moved to 40m and called again. Wow, it took five seconds and the hell broke out. My first thought was, switch off the radio and go home, but the target was to do this activation, and two qsos were still missing. So, I worked my first pile up and at the end of the activation, I had 29 qsos including 6 s2s.
At the beginning of the pile up I had to fight some water in my key, as the weather was not my friend,
so thanks for your patience.
Many Thanks to all Chasers and Activators!
I guess, I will always remember this first activation.
73, Berthold
Be aware this activity will grow on you. 
You will learn a lot on this reflector from many very experienced activators . Enjoy and have fun too.
