okay so ive been at this for about three weeks now. built a little 40m CW rig from a kit, one of the pixie clones basically, and ive made exactly two contacts. two. and one of those was a guy literally two towns over who i could probably reach with a tin can and string.

i know i know, QRP is supposed to be challenging and thats kind of the point, but i guess i wasnt prepared for just how much the antenna matters at these power levels. ive been running a random wire out my apartment window which probably isnt helping. also my key technique is pretty rough, been licensed about eight months and only just started doing CW seriously.

my question is mostly whether this is normal for someone just starting out with low power or if theres something specific i should be looking at to improve things. i feel like im doing everything right but getting almost nothing back. is 5w actually workable or do i need to bump up to like a 20w rig to have any fun

oh man this brings back memories, i went through almost the exact same thing when i built my first QRP rig like fifteen years ago. the antenna situation you're describing is almost certainly your biggest issue -- a random wire out an apartment window with no real ground or counterpoise is going to eat a huge chunk of whatever little power you have before it even gets to radiate properly. 5 watts into a bad antenna is more like 1 watt into the air, maybe less depending on losses.

honestly the pixie-type rigs are fun to build but they're not exactly the most capable things either, the frequency stability can be a bit wonky and the filtering isnt great so copying you might be harder for the other guy than it needs to be. if you stick with it though and get a decent dipole up somewhere, even just a temporary one, you will be shocked what a difference it makes. ive worked europe and japan on 5 watts from a park with a simple wire dipole and an elecraft kx3. it really does work, just takes patience and decent conditions and a good antenna. dont give up on it

yeah the antenna thing is real, but also just wanted to say -- two contacts in three weeks is actually not terrible for a pixie on 40m from an apartment? like that platform has real limitations. the superhet designs like the mountain topper or even a used KX2 if you can find one in your budget are just so much easier to actually make contacts with because you can actually hear stuff properly.

also what time of day are you calling? 40m QRP in the middle of the afternoon can be pretty rough depending on where you are, evening hours when the band opens up longer skip is usually way more productive for that kind of power level