so ive been wanting to do this for ages and finally pulled the trigger on a QCX mini kit a few months back. took me about two evenings to build it, one alignment session where i nearly gave up because the BPF adjustment was driving me nuts, and then it just... worked. like actually worked first time on the smoke test which honestly surprised me.

took it out to a local park last weekend with a wire antenna i threw together — just a random wire up about 25 feet into a tree with a 9:1 unun and a little manual tuner — and spent maybe 3 hours just calling CQ on 40m. running 5 watts. made 11 contacts including one guy in Germany which still kind of blows my mind when i think about it. 5 watts and a wire in a tree.

anyway the whole thing fits in a small pelican case with room for the tuner, some coax, and my log book. battery was just a little lipo pack i had from a RC hobby thing, lasted the whole session no problem. the efficiency of these little rigs is genuinely impressive, i had no idea how far 5 watts could go when conditions are decent.

anyone else doing portable QRP stuff regularly? curious what antennas people are using and whether its worth building vs just buying something like a KX2 or whatever. the building experience was really fun but im not sure i could handle a more complex scratch build yet.

that Germany contact on 5w is the kind of thing that gets people hooked on QRP for life haha. seriously though thats a solid first outing. the QCX mini is a great little rig, Hans does good work.

for antennas i've been using an end-fed half wave for most of my portable ops, with a home wound 49:1 transformer in a little project box. it tunes up on a bunch of bands with a tuner and its just one wire which makes deployment easy when youre in a park and dont want to look like youre installing infrastructure. i mostly work 20m for portable because the propagation is usually more predictable mid-day when im out there, 40m gets interesting but it really depends on the time.

on the build vs buy question — honestly both are valid, just different things. the KX2 is a fantastic radio and does way more bands with better filtering and all that, but you dont get the satisfaction of knowing every component. i've done both and i still go out with homebrewed stuff more often just because it feels more like an adventure. if you want to try more complex builds there are some really good Manhattan style or ugly construction projects online that are intermediate level, not as intense as full scratch build but you learn a lot more than a kit.

this is making me want to actually finish my ubitx that's been sitting on the bench for like 8 months. life keeps getting in the way but reading stuff like this reminds me why i got into this hobby. good on you for actually taking it outside, i feel like a lot of people build things and they never leave the shack.