so i've been putting off building a QRP kit for probably two years now, always told myself i'd get to it when i had time. well i finally sat down over the past few weekends and built a QCX Mini on 40 meters and honestly i dont know why i waited so long. the whole process was super satisfying even though i had to reflow a couple solder joints that were giving me grief on the BPF section.

first real QSO was with a station in ohio, im in the pacific northwest, running maybe 4 watts. i know thats not jaw dropping for 40m but for my first homebrew rig it felt pretty amazing. the built in alignment and test functions on the QCX are really clever, made it way easier to get everything dialed in without needing a ton of bench equipment.

anyway wondering if anyone else here is into QRP and what kits or scratch builds youve tried. i'm already eyeing the 20 meter version for SOTA stuff since i want to get into that. also any tips for a lightweight antenna setup that would work well for portable ops? im thinking a linked dipole but open to ideas

oh man the QCX Mini is such a great first build, good choice. i built the full size QCX+ a couple years back and it was the kit that really got me into homebrewing seriously. Hans does really good work with those designs.

for a portable antenna on SOTA i've been using an end fed half wave with a small 49:1 unun that i wound myself, the whole thing rolls up into a stuff sack and weighs next to nothing. you can cut it for 40 or 20 and just trim from there, or go the linked dipole route like you said which is more flexible if you want to work multiple bands. i've also seen people do really well with just a simple wire dipole and a short collapsible fiberglass mast, that combo is hard to beat for the weight to performance ratio. the key for QRP portable is really just getting the antenna up as high as you can manage, that extra height makes more difference than most people realize when you're only running a few watts

congrats on the build, thats awesome. i keep meaning to try kit building but it seems intimidating, like how bad was the soldering difficulty on the QCX? im decent with a iron from some electronics stuff i did in school but ive never done SMD before and thats what always scares me off