so i finally pulled the trigger on one of those QSK kits ive been eyeing for like two years, ended up going with a bitx40 variant that a guy in our club had leftover parts for. took me about three weekends to get it together, mostly because i kept second-guessing my solder joints and had to reflow a few of the toroids which was honestly kind of a pain but also kind of satisfying once it worked.

first contact was a guy in ohio, im in new mexico, running maybe 4 watts into a wire i threw up in a tree. i know thats not that impressive for some people but i was pretty floored honestly. just the idea that this little thing i built with my own hands was making it that far. been doing ham radio for about six years but mostly just running a 100 watt rig into a yagi so this felt totally different.

anyway wondering if anyone else here has done the QRP kit thing and what your experience was. also curious if people mostly stick to CW for this or if SSB QRP is worth bothering with. ive heard mixed things

oh man the bitx series is great for getting into homebrewing, good choice. the toroid winding is the part that trips most people up the first time, sounds like you got through it though. for your question about CW vs SSB — honestly both are fine but CW is where QRP really shines just because of the narrow bandwidth advantage and the fact that most serious QRP ops are listening for it. that said ive worked some really decent dx on SSB with 5 watts, its just a lot more hit or miss and youre gonna need really good conditions or a really good antenna, usually both.

the wire in the tree thing is the classic QRP portable setup and it works way better than people expect. once you start chasing parks on the air or SOTA stuff with that rig youre gonna be hooked. theres something about minimalist operating that kind of resets your brain after years of just cranking up the power and calling it a day.

SSB QRP is totally doable but yeah CW is just more efficient for those power levels, every watt counts when youre that low. i run 5w on 40m CW most evenings and regularly get into europe from the midwest which still kind of blows my mind. congrats on the first contact tho, ohio from new mexico on 4 watts is a solid start