so ive been putting off building a QRP kit for like two years now and i finally just sat down and did it last weekend. went with the ubitx v6 mostly because i kept seeing people recommend it and the price seemed reasonable for what you get. took me most of saturday to get it together, my soldering is pretty rough but i think i did okay.

first contact was a guy in ohio running 5 watts on 40m and i just about lost my mind when he came back to me. i was running 4 watts into a random wire i threw up in the backyard and honestly i wasnt even sure the thing was working right. the whole experience kind of reminded me why i got into this hobby in the first place, like there was something really satisfying about making a contact with gear you built yourself on basically no power.

anyway i know the ubitx isnt everyones favorite and theres some quirks with the software and stuff but for a first kit i thought it was manageable. thinking about doing a parks on the air activation with it sometime soon. anyone else been doing portable QRP stuff lately, curious what antennas people are using out in the field

that first QRP contact on homebrew gear is something else isnt it. i remember mine clearly and it was years ago. for POTA i honestly just use a 20m end fed half wave most of the time, throw it up in a tree with a fishing line and a small 9:1 unun i wound myself. works great for 20 and you can kinda fudge it on 40 if you mess with the tuner. keep it simple when youre portable, every ounce matters when youre hiking in.

the ubitx has its quirks for sure but people have done some really nice things with the firmware over on groups.io, worth poking around over there if you havent already. there was a guy who did a whole writeup on improving the low band receiver performance. not sure if its totally necessary but interesting stuff

oh man congrats on the first contact. im also pretty new and have been eyeing QRP kits but wasnt sure if 5 watts would actually be enough to make contacts or if id just be frustrated spinning the dial. this is kind of encouraging honestly. what length did you cut your random wire to