so i've been licensed for about two years now and mostly just used a baofeng and then a used IC-7300 that i picked up last year. been reading about QRP forever and kept telling myself id get around to it. well last month i finally pulled the trigger on a QSX... wait no i mean i got a ubitx v6 kit from hfsignals and spent a whole weekend putting it together on the kitchen table much to my wife's annoyance lol

anyway it actually works. like it really works. i made contacts on 40m with 5 watts running off a little lipo pack i had from an old drone project and i dont know it just feels completely different than cranking out 100w from the big rig. there's something about knowing you're getting through with almost nothing that makes it way more satisfying. took about 4 hours to get a contact but honestly that was part of the fun

has anyone else gone down this rabbit hole? im thinking about taking it camping this summer and wondering what antenna people use for portable ops when weight actually matters. been looking at random wire stuff but not sure where to start

oh man welcome to the addiction, you're not getting out now haha. the ubitx is a solid first build, i did the v5 a few years back and it was a great learning experience even when i screwed up a couple solder joints and had to chase down a buzz on receive for like three weeks before figuring it out.

for portable antennas honestly you cant go wrong with an end fed half wave. i made one for around 15 bucks in parts, just a 9:1 unun wound on a ft140-43 toroid, about 66 feet of wire and a short counterpoise. rolls up into almost nothing. i use it with a little 9:1 matchbox that i stuck in an altoids tin which feels appropriately ridiculous for QRP work. throw the wire up over a tree branch and youre basically set for 40 and 20m.

the other thing i'd say is get yourself a decent set of cw paddles if you havent already, even if you're running phone right now. QRP and CW just kind of go together naturally, the efficiency argument alone is worth it since you effectively get like 4x the punch compared to ssb at the same power level. some people disagree but i've worked guys in europe from my backyard with 5w cw that i could barely hear on 100w phone.

yeah same boat here, got into QRP last year and it kind of took over. one thing i found with the ubitx is the AGC can be a little rough on crowded bands, theres a few modifications floating around on the groups.io forum that help a lot if you find yourself getting stomped by strong nearby signals.

for camping i've been using a 28 foot random wire with a small tuner and it works surprisingly well. not the most efficient setup probably but i can tune it on most of the hf bands which is nice when youre out somewhere and just want to spin the dial and see what happens