so i've been wanting to do this for like two years and i finally just did it. built a little MTR-3B kit over a few evenings, nothing fancy, took my time with the soldering and only had to reflow maybe three joints that looked cold. total output is somewhere around 3-4 watts on 40 and 20 meters depending on the band conditions and battery charge.

took it to the park last saturday with a random wire antenna thrown up in a tree, just a 28 foot wire with a little 9:1 unun i had lying around, and honestly i was not expecting much. figured id make one or two contacts and call it a win. ended up working 14 stations in about 90 minutes including one guy in ontario which felt pretty wild for 4 watts. had to really slow down my sending and ask for repeats a few times but nobody seemed annoyed about it.

the battery situation was interesting — ran the whole thing off a small 3ah lipo and barely made a dent in it. thats the thing about QRP that nobody really tells you upfront, the efficiency is just on another level compared to dragging out the big radio. my whole kit fit in a small drawstring bag. like genuinely small.

anyway just wanted to share because i was kind of nervous about it and it turned out great. if anyones been on the fence about trying SOTA or just park activations with low power, its worth it. the contacts feel more earned somehow if that makes sense.

that ontario contact on 4 watts is nothing to sneeze at, 40 meters can be real magic in the right conditions. i've been doing QRP for maybe 8 years now and i still get a little thrill when a DX station comes back to me knowing im running like 5 watts into a wire.

the MTR-3B is a great first build too, Steve Weber designs are solid and pretty forgiving for someone still getting comfortable with a soldering iron. only thing id add is maybe look into a small ATU if you havent already, even a little Z-Match you wind yourself can open up a lot more flexibility with random wire antennas. the 9:1 unun works great but sometimes you want to squeeze a bit more out of a weird length of wire depending on the band. anyway sounds like you had a fantastic outing, keep at it

this is making me want to actually finish the kit thats been sitting on my workbench for like four months lol. i got intimidated after i messed up one of the toroids and just kind of... set it down. maybe i should just try rewinding it and push through