so i finally finished the 40m uBITX build ive been putting off for like six months and took it out to the park last weekend for a proper shakedown. honestly wasn't sure what to expect running 5 watts into a wire antenna but i managed to work three stations including one over in germany which kind of blew my mind a little

the build itself took me probably two evenings - the hardest part was getting the display sorted because i had one of the older boards and the firmware thing was a bit confusing. but once i got past that it all came together pretty well. i did have some audio issues at first that turned out to be a cold solder joint on one of the connectors, classic mistake

my setup was just the radio, a 9ah lipo battery from amazon, and about 30 feet of wire thrown up in a tree with a random wire tuner. nothing fancy at all. i was really surprised how well it performed considering i'm used to running 100 watts from the shack. there's something really satisfying about making a contact with so little power, way more than i expected. thinking about maybe trying some SOTA activations with it this summer if i can sort out a decent antenna situation for the summits

anyone else been doing portable QRP stuff lately? would love to hear what setups people are using

congrats on the germany contact, that's a great first outing with a homebrew rig. 40m can be really surprising like that especially in the late afternoon when the band opens up to europe. i've been doing QRP portable for probably five or six years now and it never really gets old

for SOTA i'd honestly suggest looking at a linked dipole if you dont already have one - they're a pain to make the first time but once you've got one dialed in they're so much easier than messing with a tuner on a summit. the tuner adds weight and one more thing to go wrong. i use a 49:1 unun with about 40 feet of wire for a lot of activations and it works surprisingly well on multiple bands if you're not too picky

what antenna tuner did you end up going with btw? i've been curious about the smaller ones that have been popping up on the kit market lately

oh man the uBITX is such a rabbit hole, im on my second build now after i fried the first one messing around with the PA stage trying to squeeze out a little more power. lesson learned there haha. 5 watts is plenty honestly, i keep reminding myself that

the cold solder joint thing happens to everyone, i think i spent like three hours once tracking down a similar issue that turned out to be one tiny joint on the volume pot. maddening