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

congrats on the first outing, that's a solid number of contacts for a first run especially with QRP. Colorado from Ohio on 40m in the morning hours is good propagation but still, 4 watts is 4 watts and you gotta feel good about that.

for the tree thing, a lot of folks use a slingshot with a fishing weight tied to some monofilament. arborist throw bags also work really well, they're basically little weighted bags that you fling up and the line follows. once you get the hang of it you can clear a 50 foot branch on the first or second try most days. i keep a cheap wrist rocket slingshot in my kit and it's made a huge difference compared to the stick-and-prayer method i used to do. some guys use a bow and arrow setup or even a potato cannon but that feels like overkill to me for a quick portable session.

which kit was it exactly? im trying to decide between a few different ones and keep going back and forth. also did you have any trouble with the soldering if you're newer to building stuff, im always worried i'll mess something up