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If you just got your General license,? I would recommend a used, older 100 watt HF transceiver,? like a Yaesu, Icom, or Kenwood. That's more likely to guarantee your success in your initial experiences with HF.
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73, Dan - W2DLC

I agree with Dan, its not quite ready for mainstream yet. A quick look at eham shows a Kenwood TS-2000 for $900. That will cover all the bands a General license would use.?HF/50/144/440. I am sure there are other good options that is the first one I saw.
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Colin - K6JTH?

I agree that the QMX is a complex build for a first kit.? I have asked QRP-Labs for a less compact version as the QCX+ compared to the QCX-Mini.? If you do not need the portability, then the complexity of stuffing all of that capability into a small box does not outweigh the potential for failure in the build.

The other option not raised by Dan or Colin is the Xeigu G90.? ?Also, check local auctions.? An Icom 7100 sold at our club auction for $300 in the original box.??

I do not want to take up too much bandwidth on other vendor's products, so if you want to communicate more, PM me, and we can set up a time to talk on the phone.

73
Evan
AC9TU

Evan:

Like you, I am waiting on Hans to release a QMX+ in little bigger case, and also covering the high bands.
I built 3 Minis and 2 Pluses, and have found the QCX+ just a slightly more to my liking, and of course a bit
easier in building (for me anyway).

I believe the QMX is superb offering, that is evolving and getting even better every firmware revision.

72
Mark

Hello ideal.wheel, my first hf rig was a 40m QRP CW kit that was easy to build (NorCal-40A). That radio was love at first dit as a novice in 2000. Today I use my QMX on 80-20m for POTA and couldn't be happier with all the features and extra capability. However, the 6 layer QMX is by far the most difficult kit I have ever built - due to the heat pulling ground planes and jam packed circuit board every solder must be examined under magnification, every connection tested for shorts or cold joints. Even so I average 3-6 solder bridges per build that must be repaired using copper braid solder wick. All my QMX builds have worked perfectly but I can pretty much guarantee that if I had tried that as my first HF rig I would have failed miserably. Trust me, you will be much happier with a simpler kit or a used already constructed name brand, at least until you have a lot more HF kit building experience under your belt. 73, Sandy KB3EOF

If you are starting amateur radio in CW, and rather do POTA, I think 5W is not a bad choice. A good antenna is more important. My first CW QSOs were from a POTA park, and I called CQ POTA running 100W into a vertical. I got a pileup and a DX QSO from day one. I think 5W would be nice and slow. And for SOTA you don't really have a good option for QRO anyway, except for drive-up summits. Doing POTA with 100W in an evening is a different game. It'll be a pileup and so many people will step over each other.

I also built Youkits EK1A. While I love that trusty 2SC2078 final transistor (it's for 4W at 12V but I can get 10W at 15V supply and it never got hot or died) and custom modifications I made to the crystal ladder filter (original is way too wide to my taste) the rest is unremarkable and the receiver (single super, 6MHz IF with NE602 for the mixer and product detector, typical QRP kit stuff) is decent (though very noisy) nowhere near as good as QMX even with my mods. It was good enough to get good results on QRP ARCI contests.

Regarding soldering... I use Hakko small knife tip (SK) for most stuff, including SMD. It is thick and short so it delivers plenty of heat fast (it is temperature regulated heater, of course). I get laughed at by old microwave engineer friends (they think I'm still cutting copper sheets and building stuff). It can even heat both ends of SMD simultaneously. I need to have good magnifier to "see" where the thick tip's contact patch is, the only part that's a bit tricky.