so i've been lurking on this forum for a while and finally pulled the trigger on a QFX-40 kit back in january, took me way longer than it should have to build it because life kept getting in the way but i finally finished it up a few weeks ago and did my first real portable outing with it saturday.

went up to a state park about 45 minutes from my house, threw a random wire up in a tree maybe 30 feet or so, and just started calling CQ on 40m with 5 watts. honestly did not expect much. i've always run 100w from the shack so this felt like showing up to a knife fight with a strongly worded letter.

ended up making 11 contacts in about 3 hours, including one guy in texas who was running QRP himself and gave me a 579. i was so stoked i almost knocked my water bottle into the rig. the whole setup — rig, paddle, battery, tuner — fit into a small daypack and the battery lasted the whole session with power to spare. i think im hooked. already looking at the ubitx and the mountain topper as next builds/purchases.

anyone else do a lot of SOTA or just general portable QRP? curious what antennas people are using out in the field, i feel like my random wire situation could be a lot better.

man that first QRP contact when you realize 5 watts actually works is kind of a revelation isnt it. i remember being genuinely surprised the first time i worked someone 800 miles out running 3 watts on a whip, like the whole radio thing clicked differently after that.

for antennas out in the field i've had really good luck with an end fed half wave cut for whatever band im planning to use most. you can tune it on adjacent bands with a small tuner but it really sings on its primary band. mine for 40m is just about 66 feet of wire, coils up tiny, weighs almost nothing. i use a 9:1 unun at the feedpoint and feed it with maybe 15 feet of coax back to the rig. nothing fancy but it consistently outperforms my random wire by a noticeable margin.

the mountain topper is a really nice little rig if you end up going that route. i dont have one but a buddy of mine uses one for SOTA and swears by it. the ubitx is a different animal — more of a project than a finished product if that makes sense, but you learn a ton building and tweaking it.

11 contacts in 3 hours at 5w for your first time out is honestly pretty solid. i think i made like 4 my first portable trip and was thrilled with myself lol. what was your keying speed? i ask because i find when im running slow like 12-13 wpm i get a lot more responses than when i try to run faster and sound sloppy, people seem more patient with QRP ops for some reason or maybe they just appreciate that someone's making the effort.