so i've been putting off building a kit for probably two years now, always told myself i didn't have the soldering skills or whatever. finally just ordered a QCX mini from QRP Labs last month and sat down with it over a weekend. honestly it wasn't as bad as i expected, took me about 6 hours total including all the alignment stuff. got it up on 40m and made my first contact with a station in Ohio running like 4 watts, i'm in Vermont so that felt pretty good to me.

the thing that surprised me is how much fun the whole process was, like actually building it was half the point. i have a few HTs and a mobile rig in the car but there's something about using something you put together yourself that's just different. anyway i'm already looking at the ubitx for my next project, maybe something with SSB capability. does anyone have experience with both? curious how the ubitx compares in terms of the build complexity and on-air performance for someone whos not super experienced yet.

congrats on the first build, that's a big step. the QCX series is a great starting point honestly, Hans does really solid work with those kits and the documentation is some of the best in the hobby. i built a QCX+ a while back and still use it regularly for SOTA activations, tiny thing fits in a jacket pocket with a small battery.

as for the ubitx, i built a v6 a couple years ago and it's a noticeably bigger project, more parts, more things that can go wrong. the SSB performance is... decent for what it is, but it does need some tweaking out of the box. there's a whole community around firmware mods and stuff like that which can be fun if you enjoy that side of things. i'd say if you're comfortable with the QCX build and want a challenge, go for it. just be ready to spend some time with the raduino and maybe some filter mods before it really sings. totally worth it though imo.

yeah i'm kind of in the same boat as you, been eyeing QRP kits for ages. how did you do the alignment, did you need any special equipment? i dont have an oscilloscope or anything fancy and that part always made me nervous about getting into kit building