QRP (Low Power Operation) Latest Topicshttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/forum/16-qrp-low-power-operation/QRP (Low Power Operation) Latest Topicsenfinally built my first QRP rig from a kit — some thoughtshttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/4969-finally-built-my-first-qrp-rig-from-a-kit-some-thoughts/so i've been putting off building a QRP kit for probably two years now, kept telling myself i didn't have the skills or the right tools. finally just bit the bullet and ordered a Mountain Topper MTR-3B and spent about three evenings on it last week. the SMD stuff was honestly less scary than i expected once i got a decent magnifying lamp sorted out.

first contact was on 40m running about 4 watts into a random wire i threw up in the backyard and i worked a station in Virginia (im in Ohio) on my first call. i know thats not a huge deal for a lot of you but i was kind of floored that it just... worked. like immediately.

only issue i ran into is the audio seems a little low on the sidetone when im doing CW, not sure if thats a component issue or just how the rig is. anyone else build one of these and notice that? overall though super happy with it and already looking at antenna options for taking it out portable. been reading about end fed half waves and they seem popular for this kind of thing but open to suggestions

]]>4969Sun, 05 Jul 2026 15:05:17 +0000finally built my first QRP rig and took it out to the park yesterdayhttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/4945-finally-built-my-first-qrp-rig-and-took-it-out-to-the-park-yesterday/so ive been wanting to do this for probably two years now and i finally just sat down and built the Pennywhistle 40 from the GQRP club kit. took me three evenings spread across a couple weeks because i kept second guessing my soldering on the toroids. anyway got it done, threw a wire up in the backyard first just to check it was actually putting out something, and sure enough heard a few signals so figured it was working at least receiver-wise.

yesterday i packed it up with my KX3 paddle, a 9v battery pack i cobbled together from some holders, and a random wire antenna with a little tuner i also built (that one was from a QRPme kit, super simple). drove about 20 minutes to a local park, found a tree to hang the wire from, and just started calling CQ on 40m around 7.030.

made 5 contacts in about an hour and a half. two of them were over 800 miles away which honestly blew my mind a little because im only running like 3-4 watts. one guy gave me a 569 which i thought was pretty decent. the whole setup fits in a small backpack and costs almost nothing to run. i think im hooked on this. anyone else doing park activations with homebrew stuff? curious what antennas people are using for portable QRP

]]>4945Sat, 04 Jul 2026 21:03:12 +0000first QRP build — finally got it working but output seems low?https://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/4890-first-qrp-build-finally-got-it-working-but-output-seems-low/so i finally finished building one of those QRP kits, went with the ubitx v6 after reading about it for like 3 months before pulling the trigger. took me a few evenings to get it all together and honestly the build went smoother than i expected for my first real radio kit. hooked it up to a dummy load and SWR meter and im seeing about 8 watts on 40m which i thought was going to be higher? manual says up to 10w but i read somewhere that a lot of these come in a bit under that and its not a big deal. anyway i took it out to the back yard with a random wire antenna and made a few contacts on 7.200 and people could hear me fine so im not really complaining.

the thing i cant figure out is when i drop down to 20m the power falls off quite a bit, maybe 4-5w at best. is that normal for this rig or is there a trimmer adjustment i should be looking at? ive seen mention of the PA bias pots but dont want to touch anything without knowing what im doing. also curious if anyone else runs this radio portable, wondering what battery setup people use for hiking since i want to take it out on a SOTA activation eventually.

]]>4890Fri, 03 Jul 2026 19:03:58 +0000finally built my first QRP rig and took it out to the park — some thoughtshttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/4868-finally-built-my-first-qrp-rig-and-took-it-out-to-the-park-some-thoughts/so ive been wanting to do this for probably two years now and last weekend i finally just did it. built a little pixie kit i got off ebay for like eight bucks, yeah i know its not the most impressive thing but i had to start somewhere right. spent maybe three evenings getting it together, had to reflow a couple solder joints because i was being sloppy but eventually got it running.

took it out to the county park saturday morning with a 9v battery and a wire i threw up in a tree — probably 20 feet of random wire honestly, nothing fancy. was putting out maybe 500mw if that. figured id hear nothing and come home disappointed.

ended up making contact with a guy in ohio, im in western pennsylvania so its not like a huge distance but i was genuinely shocked it worked at all. we had a short exchange, signal reports were honestly not great on either end but the qso happened and i logged it and sat there kind of grinning like an idiot for a few minutes.

anyway the whole thing made me want to build something better. has anyone here gone from a pixie type kit to something more like an mw0yks or an elecraft type setup and was the jump worth it, like in terms of what you can actually do with it on the air. im trying to figure out if i should keep building kits or just save up for something like a kx2.

]]>4868Fri, 03 Jul 2026 01:03:14 +0000finally built my first QRP rig from a kit and wowhttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/4806-finally-built-my-first-qrp-rig-from-a-kit-and-wow/so ive been licensed for about 3 years now and mostly just did stuff with my Icom 7300 from the shack, nothing wrong with it but i kept reading about QRP and figured id give it a shot. picked up one of those QCX mini kits from QRP Labs and spent a weekend putting it together. im not the best at soldering but i took my time and it actually worked first try which was honestly shocking.

first contact was about 340 miles on 40m with 5 watts and the other guy gave me a 579, like i was actually surprised it worked that well. now im kinda obsessed. been thinking about taking it out portable with a random wire antenna and a 4:1 unun just to see what happens. anyone doing a lot of parks on the air type stuff with these little kits or similar rigs? curious what antenna setups people are using when they go out because i dont really want to lug around a big antenna tuner]]>4806Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:37:36 +0000finally built my first QRP rig from a kit — some thoughtshttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/4783-finally-built-my-first-qrp-rig-from-a-kit-some-thoughts/so i finally pulled the trigger on one of those QCX mini kits from QRP Labs and spent most of last weekend putting it together. im pretty new to kit building, i think the last thing i soldered was like a school science project, so i was pretty nervous about the whole thing.

it actually went together surprisingly well. the instructions are really detailed and i took my time with the SMD parts which i was honestly dreading. fired it up on 40m and got it aligned and it was just... working. i made my first contact with it about an hour later running 4 watts to a random wire up in a tree in my backyard.

honestly the thing that got me was how far 4 watts actually goes when you know what youre doing. worked a station in georgia (im in ohio) and he gave me a 579 like it was nothing. been chasing DX with my big rig for a while and always assumed you needed at least 100w to be heard but i dunno, maybe ive been doing it wrong this whole time.

anyway just wanted to share since i see people ask about kit building a lot. happy to answer questions if anyone is thinking about starting with something like this.

]]>4783Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:17:35 +0000finally built my first QRP rig from a kit — some thoughtshttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/4758-finally-built-my-first-qrp-rig-from-a-kit-some-thoughts/so i finally pulled the trigger on one of those QSK kits ive been eyeing for like two years, ended up going with a bitx40 variant that a guy in our club had leftover parts for. took me about three weekends to get it together, mostly because i kept second-guessing my solder joints and had to reflow a few of the toroids which was honestly kind of a pain but also kind of satisfying once it worked.

first contact was a guy in ohio, im in new mexico, running maybe 4 watts into a wire i threw up in a tree. i know thats not that impressive for some people but i was pretty floored honestly. just the idea that this little thing i built with my own hands was making it that far. been doing ham radio for about six years but mostly just running a 100 watt rig into a yagi so this felt totally different.

anyway wondering if anyone else here has done the QRP kit thing and what your experience was. also curious if people mostly stick to CW for this or if SSB QRP is worth bothering with. ive heard mixed things

]]>4758Thu, 02 Jul 2026 07:53:38 +0000finally tried QRP outdoors this weekend, some thoughtshttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/3239-finally-tried-qrp-outdoors-this-weekend-some-thoughts/so i've been sitting on my little uBITX for about 6 months now, just using it at the home shack with a proper antenna and a decent power supply, never really pushing it hard. this weekend i finally threw it in a backpack with my end fed half wave and a little 3ah lipo and hiked out to the ridge near my house.

honestly wasnt expecting much. i've heard people say QRP is frustrating and you just sit there calling CQ into the void but that wasnt my experience at all. worked 4 contacts on 40m in about an hour and a half, including one guy in michigan (im in colorado) which felt pretty good for 5 watts. the band was decent, nothing crazy.

the one thing i was NOT prepared for was just how much the antenna placement matters when you dont have a big yard to spread things out. i had to kind of compromise on the feedpoint height and i think i lost some efficiency there. also the lipo ran down faster than i expected, might have been the cold. its been bugging me ever since whether i should switch to a different battery chemistry for cold weather ops.

anyway, just wanted to share. if anyone has experience with cold weather battery stuff or just QRP portable in general i'd love to hear what works for you.

]]>3239Mon, 29 Jun 2026 09:47:44 +0000First QRP build project - Hilltopper Tallboy experiences?https://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/298-first-qrp-build-project-hilltopper-tallboy-experiences/New Extra here, finally ready to try my first QRP kit build! I've had a hankering to build something lately and happened across a relatively new offering from the 4 States QRP Group: the Hilltopper Tallboy, a monoband QRP CW transceiver kit. Looking at the 40m version.

Anyone here built one? How's the construction difficulty for someone comfortable with basic soldering but new to kit building? I think the Tallboy would make a great group or club project. Builders - even new ones - would end up with a good transceiver for park activations or casual operation on the band of their choice. Unlike some kits out there, the construction of this radio is not at all intimidating.

]]>298Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:08:18 +0000finally built my first QRP rig from a kit — some thoughtshttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/1939-finally-built-my-first-qrp-rig-from-a-kit-some-thoughts/so i've been putting off building a QRP rig for probably two years now, always figured i'd mess it up or something. finally just ordered a QCX mini kit for 40m and spent a weekend on it. honestly the build wasn't as scary as i thought, took me maybe 4-5 hours total including all the winding on the toroid cores which i was dreading.

first contact was a guy in ohio, i'm in virginia, running about 4 watts into a end-fed halfwave up in a tree in my backyard. i know that's not DX or anything impressive but i sat there kind of stunned for a minute that this little thing i built with my own hands was actually talking to someone else's radio. hard to explain the feeling if you havent done it.

anyway my question for people who do a lot of QRP — is 40m a good band to start on or should i be looking at building something for 20m too? i mostly want to do portable stuff eventually, maybe SOTA activations. the 40m seems pretty good in the evenings but i notice it gets noisy during the day and i'm wondering if i'm missing out on contacts by not having 20m available.

]]>1939Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:01:16 +0000finally built my first QRP rig from a kit — some thoughtshttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/1598-finally-built-my-first-qrp-rig-from-a-kit-some-thoughts/so ive been wanting to do QRP for a while now and finally pulled the trigger on a Xiegu X6100 a few months back but then a buddy at my local club convinced me to try building a kit first before spending that kind of money. ended up going with one of the QRP Labs QCX+ kits for 40 meters and honestly i wasnt sure i could do it, my soldering is decent but nothing special.

anyway it took me about 5 hours spread over two evenings and the thing actually worked first time which i was not expecting at all. put out about 3.5 watts into my endfed and made a contact to a guy in georgia from ohio on the first try. i know thats not crazy DX but i was sitting there at like 5 watts wondering how people ever did this before digital modes and i have a new respect for the old timers doing CW QRP seriously.

the kit itself is pretty well documented, dont let the instruction booklet intimidate you, its very step by step. only thing i fumbled was the toroids, wound one wrong and had to redo it but caught it during the alignment stage. if youre on the fence about building vs buying i honestly think building taught me more about how the radio actually works than anything ive read. anyway just wanted to share since this forum helped me decide to go for it

]]>1598Tue, 30 Jun 2026 22:36:26 +0000finally built my first QRP rig and took it out to the park — some thoughtshttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/1170-finally-built-my-first-qrp-rig-and-took-it-out-to-the-park-some-thoughts/so i've been wanting to do this for probably two years now and last weekend i finally got my act together and did it. built a pixie kit first just to get my feet wet, then spent a few weeks putting together a slightly more serious 40m CW transceiver from a design i found on one of the QRP forums. nothing fancy, LM386 audio amp, NE602 mixer, the usual stuff you see in these low parts count rigs.

took it out to the state park saturday morning with a wire antenna i threw up in a tree, maybe 25 feet at the apex, fed with some old RG-174 i had laying around. running 3 watts roughly, maybe a hair less. honestly wasnt sure i'd hear anything let alone make any contacts but within maybe 20 minutes i had a guy in ohio coming back to me, then later a contact down into tennessee. both solid copy, nothing special but i was just sitting on a picnic table with a battery i charged the night before and making contacts, felt pretty wild.

the rig has a little drift issue when it first warms up which i know is pretty common with these vfo designs, anybody have a good trick for stabilizing that faster? ive tried the npо caps on the oscillator but honestly im not sure i placed them in quite the right spot in the circuit.

]]>1170Tue, 30 Jun 2026 11:57:36 +0000finally tried some QRP portable stuff and now i get why people are obsessedhttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/1861-finally-tried-some-qrp-portable-stuff-and-now-i-get-why-people-are-obsessed/so i've been licensed for about 3 years and always just ran 100w from the shack, never really thought much about QRP because honestly it seemed like making things harder for no reason. but my buddy kept bugging me about it and i borrowed his elecraft kx2 for a weekend trip up to the mountains and... yeah okay i get it now.

made contacts on 20m with 5 watts and a wire i threw up in a tree and it just felt different somehow, like more satisfying? hard to explain. the radio itself is tiny, fits in my jacket pocket basically, and the battery lasted forever. i was running it off a small lipo pack he had rigged up.

now im seriously thinking about either building something or buying a dedicated QRP rig. ive been looking at the xiegu g90 but thats not really QRP i guess, and then theres the mcHF kit and some others. anyone built one of those QCX rigs from QRP labs? they look interesting but im not sure if my soldering is up to it. been a while since ive done any kit building.

]]>1861Tue, 30 Jun 2026 03:55:30 +0000finally built my first QRP rig from a kit, few questionshttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/4319-finally-built-my-first-qrp-rig-from-a-kit-few-questions/so i've been putting off building the QMX for probably six months now, just intimidated i guess. finally sat down last weekend and did it, took me about 4 hours spread over two evenings and honestly it went smoother than i expected. fired it up on 40m and immediately heard a pile up on some DX station which i thought was a good sign lol

anyway i made my first contact with it running about 4 watts into a simple end-fed and the other guy gave me a 559 which i was pretty stoked about. but i have some questions for people who've been doing QRP longer than me. first, how much does antenna really matter at these power levels -- like i know it always matters but does it matter MORE when youre only running 4-5 watts? and second, im having trouble deciding if i should try to squeeze more efficiency out of my current setup or just get comfortable operating QRP first before i start optimizing everything. also is 40m the best band to start on or should i be trying other bands

sorry for the scattered questions, just excited and have a lot to learn still

]]>4319Mon, 29 Jun 2026 04:00:54 +0000finally built my first QRP rig and took it out this weekendhttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/2748-finally-built-my-first-qrp-rig-and-took-it-out-this-weekend/so i finally finished the QCX mini kit i've been picking at for like two months and took it out to the state park saturday. ran it off a 3ah lipo i had from an old drone project and just threw a random wire up in a tree, nothing fancy. worked a guy in ohio from virginia on 20m with 5 watts which honestly felt incredible considering i'm used to running 100w from the shack and thinking that's somehow still not enough power.

the whole setup fit in a small bag, radio, paddle, battery, some coax, antenna wire and a couple of fishing weights i use to throw the line over branches. maybe 3 lbs total? i dunno i didnt weigh it. but it was so light compared to hauling my kenwood out which i did once and never again.

anyway if anyone is on the fence about building one of these kits i'd say just do it. i'm not a great builder by any means, took me forever and i had to reflow like 4 or 5 joints that were giving me grief, but it works and it works well. curious if anyone else has done the sota or pota thing with the QCX because i'm thinking about starting to activate some parks now that i have a portable setup that doesnt make my back hurt

]]>2748Sun, 28 Jun 2026 21:24:05 +0000finally tried QRP portable last weekend, some questionshttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/3502-finally-tried-qrp-portable-last-weekend-some-questions/so i finally took the plunge and built one of those youkits clones from a kit i ordered off qrz classifieds like six months ago, been sitting on my bench forever. took it out to the state park saturday with a buddipole and a 3ah lipo i had from an old drone project.

managed to get three contacts on 20m running about 4 watts, one of them was in spain which i was honestly shocked about. but i had a few weird things happen, signal reports were all over the place and at one point the rig just kind of... stopped transmitting mid qso. came back fine after i cycled the power but that was a little nerve wracking.

is that a thermal thing? temps were around 85 degrees out and i had it sitting on the picnic table in direct sun like an idiot. also wondering if anyone has tips for squeezing more efficiency out of these little rigs, i feel like im leaving watts on the table somewhere. antenna matching maybe? my swr was reading about 1.8:1 on most of the band.

]]>3502Sun, 28 Jun 2026 16:19:43 +0000Battery life with my KX2 vs G90 - help me optimize?https://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/297-battery-life-with-my-kx2-vs-g90-help-me-optimize/Fellow QRPers, I'm trying to get better battery life out of my portable setup. My KX2 seems to drain my 4400mAh LiFePO4 pack much faster than expected - maybe 3-4 hours of casual CW operation on 20m. Meanwhile, my friend's G90 runs all day on similar power. Any tips on optimizing current draw? I've turned off the display backlight and lowered RF gain when possible, but wondering if I'm missing something obvious.

Planning some POTA activations this spring and want to maximize my operating time!

]]>297Sun, 28 Jun 2026 14:53:03 +0000finally built my first QRP rig and took it out to the park — some thoughtshttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/4440-finally-built-my-first-qrp-rig-and-took-it-out-to-the-park-some-thoughts/so i've been wanting to do this for probably two years now and i finally just did it. built a little pixie kit, yeah i know i know the pixie gets a lot of hate but as a first build it was actually really satisfying. took me a couple evenings to put together and i only had to reflow like three joints when i was done. got it working on 40m.

anyway i took it out to the park last saturday with a random wire antenna just thrown up in a tree and a 3ah lipo i had from an rc project. honestly wasnt expecting much, maybe nothing. but i worked a guy in ohio from here in pennsylvania on 2 watts and i swear i almost fell off the bench. he gave me a 559 which i'll take all day long. there's something about making a contact with something you literally built yourself that just hits different than turning on the icom and working europe.

now i'm looking at building something a bit more capable, been reading about the ubitx and also looking at some of the QCX stuff from QRP labs. curious if anyone here has done the QCX+ or the QCX mini and what they thought about the receive quality because that seems to be where the pixie really falls apart — the rx is just not great.

]]>4440Sat, 27 Jun 2026 22:11:27 +0000first qrp build went better than expected, some questions thoughhttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/1643-first-qrp-build-went-better-than-expected-some-questions-though/so i finally finished my first scratch built QRP rig, been working off the EMRFD book and a few youtube builds for reference. its a 40m CW only thing, probably putting out around 3-4 watts measured into a dummy load. honestly i was expecting total disaster but the dang thing actually oscillated on the right frequency and i made a contact into ohio from kentucky on the first real try which i thought was pretty cool.

anyway my question is about efficiency, im noticing the final transistor (2n2222a) gets pretty warm after like 10 minutes of operating even at this power level. is that normal or am i doing something wrong with the bias? i copied the design pretty closely from the book but i might have gotten a resistor value wrong somewhere. also wondering if anyone has tips on enclosures for portable use, right now its just sitting on a piece of plywood which works but isnt exactly field ready.

also for what its worth the receiver side is a direct conversion setup and its workable but kinda rough, lots of audio hum that i cant quite track down. might be a grounding thing. anyway loving qrp so far, wish i had gotten into building years ago

]]>1643Sat, 27 Jun 2026 21:38:14 +0000finally built my first QRP rig and took it out this weekendhttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/2173-finally-built-my-first-qrp-rig-and-took-it-out-this-weekend/so i've been lurking on this forum for like six months reading about QRP and finally just did it. built a little 40m CW rig from a kit, one of the 4state QRP group ones, took me probably three evenings spread over two weeks because i kept second guessing my soldering joints. anyway took it out to a state park saturday morning with a end-fed half wave wire thrown up in a tree and honestly was not expecting much.

made 11 contacts in about 2.5 hours running maybe 4 watts. farthest was a guy in Colorado and i'm in Ohio so that was pretty exciting for me. the whole setup including the rig, keyer paddle, battery and antenna wire fit in a small backpack and weighed almost nothing. i dont think i can go back to hauling my HF rig out to the car now lol

the only issue i had was finding a good tree branch to throw the wire over, ended up having to walk around for like 20 minutes before i found something at a decent height. does anyone have tips for getting wire up into trees more reliably? i was just using a stick and some fishing line which worked eventually but felt pretty clunky

]]>2173Thu, 25 Jun 2026 11:55:40 +0000finally built my first QRP rig from a kit — some thoughtshttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/3096-finally-built-my-first-qrp-rig-from-a-kit-some-thoughts/so i finally pulled the trigger on an ubitx v6 kit after probably six months of just reading about it and watching youtube videos. got it all together over a weekend and honestly the build wasnt as scary as i thought it would be. i did manage to solder one connector backwards the first time but caught it before i powered it up which was lucky.

first contact was a guy in ohio running 5 watts on 40 meters and i was just blown away that my little box with like 8 or 9 watts actually made it. i know thats not some crazy DX or anything but for me sitting there with something i actually built it felt pretty significant. been a ham for about 2 years now and mostly just did voice on VHF so getting into HF and especially CW-capable rigs has been a whole new world.

anyway my question for anyone who's been doing QRP for a while — is the jump from 5 watts to even 10 watts actually meaningful or is it kind of pointless to chase those extra few watts when i could just focus on antenna work instead. i keep reading that antenna is king but also feel like i dont fully understand where the efficiency gains really come from at these low power levels

]]>3096Sat, 27 Jun 2026 06:45:38 +0000Field Report: Xiegu X5105 vs KX2 for POTAhttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/75-field-report-xiegu-x5105-vs-kx2-for-pota/Just wrapped up a week-long camping trip where I took both my Xiegu X5105 and Elecraft KX2 for some serious side-by-side testing during POTA activations. Thought I'd share my real-world observations.

Battery life: The X5105's internal battery lasted about 4 hours of mixed CW/SSB operation, while the KX2 with external 18650 pack went almost 7 hours. Both at 5W output.

Receiver performance: KX2 definitely has better weak signal reception, especially in crowded band conditions. The X5105 waterfall display is nice but can be a power drain.

Build quality feels solid on both, though the KX2's controls have that premium feel. For the price difference though, the X5105 offers incredible value - especially with its built-in antenna tuner working so well with my random wire.

]]>75Sat, 27 Jun 2026 05:42:12 +0000finally built my first QRP rig from a kit — some thoughtshttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/1005-finally-built-my-first-qrp-rig-from-a-kit-some-thoughts/so i've been putting off building a QRP rig for probably two years now, always telling myself i'd get around to it when i had more time or whatever. finally bit the bullet last month and ordered one of those QCX mini kits from QRP Labs and man, what an experience.

the build itself took me a couple evenings spread over a week, nothing crazy difficult but there were definitely a few moments where i had to slow down and just stare at the schematic for a while before things clicked. i'm not the most experienced builder — my previous kit was just a simple audio filter thing — so the QCX was a step up for sure.

anyway got it working, aligned it okay i think, and took it out to a local park last weekend with my end-fed and a little LiFePO4 battery pack i've been using for POTA stuff. worked three stations in about an hour on 20m with 5 watts. one was in Florida which is pretty far from my QTH in the midwest. im still kind of amazed that 5 watts gets out at all honestly.

the efficiency thing is what really got me thinking. like i've been running 100 watts on my main rig forever and yeah it's convenient but there's something different about working a contact knowing you're running on basically nothing. anyone else feel like QRP kind of changes how you think about operating? also curious if anyone has tips for getting more out of low power — antenna stuff, best times of day, whatever you've found helps

]]>1005Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:34:09 +0000first QRP rig build — ended up with something that actually works??https://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/3194-first-qrp-rig-build-ended-up-with-something-that-actually-works/so i've been lurking on this forum for a while and finally bit the bullet and built my first QRP rig from scratch. went with the classic Pixie kit because everyone says start simple, and yeah i get it now. took me about two evenings to put together, third evening to figure out why it wasnt transmitting (cold solder joint on the crystal, classic me)

anyway got it on 40m and made my first contact with a guy about 300 miles away running maybe 500mw. i was absolutely floored. ive been licensed for two years and mostly just used a baofeng and my club's repeater so this felt like a completely different hobby honestly. the signal report wasnt great, 57 i think, but it was a real contact on a rig i built myself and that still feels kind of surreal

now im already thinking about what to build next. ive been looking at the QCX mini but the price jump feels significant compared to the pixie kit. is it worth it or should i look at something else for portable ops? i do a lot of hiking and want something that can run off a small lipo pack without me having to carry a car battery up a mountain

]]>3194Fri, 26 Jun 2026 21:37:57 +0000built my first qrp rig from a kit and now im hookedhttps://www.hamradiobase.com/forums/topic/2060-built-my-first-qrp-rig-from-a-kit-and-now-im-hooked/so i finally broke down and ordered one of those QCX mini kits a few months back, mostly because i kept seeing people talk about them on here and i was curious. took me a couple evenings to put it together, nothing too crazy for someone who's done a little soldering before. anyway fired it up on 40m and made my first contact running like 3 watts and i genuinely could not believe it worked. the other station was in ohio, i'm in virginia, and he gave me a solid 559. i know thats not some incredible dx or anything but something about knowing you're only putting out 3 watts and someone across a few states can hear you clearly just kind of changes the way you think about rf.

since then ive been messing around more with antenna efficiency because i figure if im only running 5 watts i better make every bit of it count. been reading a lot about end fed halfwaves and whether the feedline radiation is actually a problem or not, still a little fuzzy on that honestly. mostly posting because i wanted to share the experience and also ask if anyone has tips for getting better results portable, like in a park or something. i have a little lipo pack i use for the radio but battery management for a whole day out is something i havent totally figured out yet.

]]>2060Thu, 25 Jun 2026 20:09:48 +0000