so i've been messing around with QRP stuff for about two years now and i finally finished building my first rig from scratch, not a kit. just raw components, a schematic i found online, and way too many evenings at the bench. its a simple 40m CW transceiver, probably putting out around 3-4 watts which honestly feels like cheating compared to what i thought i'd end up with when i started.

the whole thing runs off a single 9v battery which i know isnt ideal for extended operation but for quick portable sessions its been fantastic. took it out to a park last weekend and worked a station in ohio from pennsylvania on the first call which i know isnt some crazy dx or anything but when you built the radio with your own hands theres something completely different about it. hard to describe.

anyway the main thing i wanted to share is that the efficiency stuff really matters more than i expected. i spent a lot of time reading about class E amplifier stages and trying to get the most out of every milliwatt and honestly even small improvements in the PA efficiency made a noticeable difference on battery life. if anyone is thinking about building their own and hasnt dug into that side of things yet, its worth the time. the difference between a sloppy 50% efficient final and a clean 80%+ is huge when youre running off a battery pack in a field.

happy to share the schematic or talk through any of the building stuff if anyone is curious, i know there's a bunch of people on here who have done similar things and probably have way more experience than me.

that Ohio contact on a homebrew rig is honestly one of the best feelings in the hobby, doesnt matter the distance. i remember my first homebrew QSO was something like 200 miles and i was completely over the moon about it.

you're spot on about efficiency - people underestimate it all the time. i've seen guys obsess over antenna gain when their PA is burning half their power as heat. for battery operation especially you really want to squeeze everything you can out of the front end too, not just the final. a lot of the older QRP designs have pretty hungry VFO stages that add up over a long portable session. worth looking at if you havent already. what oscillator scheme did you end up going with, crystal or VFO?

this is so cool, im just getting into QRP stuff and have been thinking about attempting a scratch build eventually but its kind of intimidating. i built the classic bitx40 kit last spring and that felt like a big deal so going fully from scratch seems like a whole other level. did you have any RF experience before or did you kind of just figure it out as you went? also what did you use for the enclosure, that part always trips me up