I was out using the 20&30m kits yesterday and again sat right by the feed point of the Inv-L slopper EFHW, there was negligible pickup. I think most of my pickup must have been on the paddle and headphones cables as that is all I have decoupled.
And I’d agree. But I’ve years of using my 817 and centre fed dipoles. The QCXs and EFHW is just something different to try. It’s part of a minimal and lightweight setup and I get a silly smile as it’s home assembled and uses free batteries.
My coax solenoid wound current choke at the feedpoint of the dipoles was never needed from observations on 60/40m but is needed on 30m. I’ve never tried the higher bands without one. It would appear to be only 250Ohms at 30m which is a bit low but it fixes the problems my 817 setup had. The cable and case were hot to RF without it on 30m.
I’m not sure how much radio experience you had before you got licenced. So it’s difficult to say why there is a difference. It could be down to simply lots more hours on the air. However, I have always said that people new to HF SOTA should start with a coax fed centre fed dipole first. The losses in them are mainly down to the coax feeder and ground losses. But they are docile and repeatable. Play with them and see how they work and what you can achieve. Then switch to “exotic” antennas that need matching units. There’ll be losses in the matching unit for an EFHW. The aim is to use one where the loss is no worse than in metres of coax. Some of the designs on here are the result of lots of experiments and design work. The designs should be repeatable. If you find your EFHW doesn’t work as well as the coax fed dipole, then maybe you need to rig it differently or try different match designs.