so ive been wanting to do this for probably two years now and i finally just sat down and built the Pennywhistle 40 from the GQRP club kit. took me three evenings spread across a couple weeks because i kept second guessing my soldering on the toroids. anyway got it done, threw a wire up in the backyard first just to check it was actually putting out something, and sure enough heard a few signals so figured it was working at least receiver-wise.

yesterday i packed it up with my KX3 paddle, a 9v battery pack i cobbled together from some holders, and a random wire antenna with a little tuner i also built (that one was from a QRPme kit, super simple). drove about 20 minutes to a local park, found a tree to hang the wire from, and just started calling CQ on 40m around 7.030.

made 5 contacts in about an hour and a half. two of them were over 800 miles away which honestly blew my mind a little because im only running like 3-4 watts. one guy gave me a 569 which i thought was pretty decent. the whole setup fits in a small backpack and costs almost nothing to run. i think im hooked on this. anyone else doing park activations with homebrew stuff? curious what antennas people are using for portable QRP

that sounds like a great first activation, congrats on the build. toroids always look scarier than they are, once you get a few under your belt you stop counting the turns three times haha. 569 at 3 watts over 800 miles is genuinely solid, propagation has been pretty decent on 40 lately especially late afternoon.

for portable antennas i almost always use an end fed half wave. lightweight, no ground radials to mess with, and if you have a 9:1 or 49:1 unun you can tune around pretty well. i built mine from a kit too, the whole thing rolls up into a pouch about the size of my fist. tried a few linked dipoles but honestly the EFHW is just less fuss when youre setting up on your own in a park. id also say dont sleep on a good counterpoise even with the unun, makes a real difference on some bands.

ive been thinking about doing exactly this but i wasnt sure if QRP was worth it for someone who doesnt have a lot of antenna options. like i live in an apartment so my situation at home is kind of rough but a park activation seems doable. what was the battery situation like, did the 9v pack last the whole session?