so i've been on the fence about QRP for like two years now, kept telling myself i'd do it when i had more experience or whatever, but last month i just bit the bullet and built one of those Michigan Mighty Mite kits just to get my feet wet with homebrewing. honestly the build took me a weekend of fumbling around with the soldering iron and i did have to reflow a couple joints that were clearly cold but it came together.

anyway took it out to the park yesterday with my end fed wire strung up in a tree, running maybe 500mw into 40m and i was just calling CQ not really expecting much and this station in Ohio came back to me. i'm in central Virginia so that's not huge DX or anything but i was genuinely shocked. we had a full QSO, he gave me a 559 which felt amazing for half a watt lol. i know some of you guys are working DX with like 5 watts but this was a first for me and i kind of get it now, why people get obsessed with this stuff.

has anyone else had that moment where QRP just clicks? also wondering if the end fed is really the way to go for portable or if i should look at something else

oh man that feeling never really gets old honestly. i remember my first QRP contact was on a 49er kit back when i was still pretty new and the other guy was in Canada and i literally sat there staring at the radio for a minute before logging it. there's something about the efficiency aspect that makes every contact feel more earned i guess.

as for antennas, the end fed works great portable if you have the right matchbox for it. a lot of guys swear by the EFHW transformers with a 49:1 ratio for multiband use. personally i've been running a linked dipole for my sota activations because i like being able to switch bands without retuning everything but it's more wire to deal with. for casual park use i'd say stick with what's working, maybe just experiment with the counterpoise length if you aren't using one already, made a noticeable difference for me on 40.

that's awesome, 559 on 500mw is no joke. im pretty new too and just got into qrp recently, been using a youkits hb1b which i didnt build myself but man its tiny and runs on a little lipo pack. took it camping and made a few contacts on 20m. my antenna situation is still kind of a mess though so i cant really give advice there haha