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

congrats on the first contact with the homebrew rig, thats always a great feeling. i remember my first QRP contact felt way more satisfying than any DX i'd worked with a kilowatt at a club station. something about knowing you built the thing and its actually working out there.

for POTA with the QCX, yeah it's a great combo. i'd suggest maybe looking at a simple end fed halfwave instead of the random wire if you haven't already, the EFHW you can tune it for the band you want and you'll probably get a bit more out of those 5 watts. also worth grabbing one of those small magnetic loop antennas if you ever end up in a spot where you cant throw a wire up, parks can be weird about that sometimes depending on the ranger.

the battery choice is solid too, lipo gives you good capacity for the weight. just keep an eye on the voltage, those QCX finals dont love getting too much and a lipo can sag weird if you push it. enjoy the activations, its a different hobby once you go portable honestly

dude the ohio contact on 5w is awesome. i've been lurking on this forum trying to decide if i want to get into QRP before i even get my general (just have tech right now) and posts like this make me want to just go for it. how hard was the kit to build? i can solder ok but i've never done a full radio kit before, only smaller stuff like a simple audio amplifier in high school