A Peaceful POTA Stop at Lake James with the Penntek TR-45L

by Thomas (K4SWL)

On Tuesday, May 20, 2025, I was on the final leg of my trip back home from Dayton. After spending some time with my father—who was in the hospital at the time (happy to report he’s now home and doing much better!)—I performed a pedestrian mobile activation of Tuttle Educational State Forest (US-4861). Here’s the field report.

After wrapping up that activation, I realized I could likely squeeze in another hour of POTA on the way home. Without a doubt, the best nearby site was Lake James State Park, so I made the 25-minute drive from Tuttle to the Catawba River Access.

Lake James State Park (US-2739)

When I arrived, the park was blissfully quiet—I was one of the only people there. That meant I had my pick of activation sites!

I grabbed my Red Oxx Micro Manager pack, which contained my Penntek TR-45L Skinny, specifically packed for Hamvention.

Inside the bag, I also had my 40-meter end-fed half-wave antenna—homebrewed years ago by my friend Steve (MW0SAW).

I made my way down to one of the lakeside picnic tables. These sites can be hit or miss: they’re close to the boat dock, and when the boats show up, some of them have brutal inverters that wipe out the bands.

But being a quiet Tuesday, I wasn’t too concerned about heavy traffic.

I deployed the antenna quickly, fired up the TR-45L, crossed my fingers that propagation would hold—and hit the air!

Gear

Note: All Amazon, CW Morse, ABR, Chelegance, eBay, and Radioddity links are affiliate links that support QRPer.com at no cost to you.

Radio

  • Penntek TR-45L “Skinny”

Antenna System and Throw Line

Key/Cable

Pack/Cover

Battery

Logging

Camera and Audio

On The Air

I started calling CQ POTA on 20 meters and was quickly rewarded with a string of friendly hunters.

Within 11 minutes, I worked the ten stations needed to validate the park as an activator.

I then worked three more stations on 20 meters, then QSY’d to the 40 meter band.

Fortunately, 40 meters was healthy, too!

Within 13 minutes, I logged a total of ten more stations!

All-in-all, I walked away with 23 stations logged in a total of 31 minutes on the air! Woo hoo!

QSO Map

Here’s what this five-watt activation looked like when plotted out on a QSO Map. Click on the map image to enlarge.

Activation Video

Here’s my real-time, real-life video of the entire activation.  As with all of my videos, I don’t edit out any parts of the on-air activation time. In addition, I have YouTube monetization turned off, although that doesn’t stop them from inserting ads before and after my videos.

Note that Patreon supporters can watch and even download this video 100% ad-free through Vimeo on my Patreon page:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Just what the doctor ordered

After a week full of FDIM/Hamvention excitement and a lot of driving, this relaxed and successful POTA activation was exactly what I needed. The bands cooperated, my gear performed flawlessly, and everything fell into place.

I’m so glad I carved out time for one final activation before heading home. It truly was the perfect capstone to an amazing week.

Thank you

Thank you for joining me during this activation!

I hope you enjoyed the field report and my activation video as much as I enjoyed creating them!

Of course, I’d also like to send a special thanks to those of you who have been supporting the site and channel through Patreon, and the Coffee Fund. While not a requirement, as my content will always be free, I really appreciate the support.

As I mentioned before, the Patreon platform connected to Vimeo makes it possible for me to share videos that are not only 100% ad-free but also downloadable for offline viewing. The Vimeo account also serves as a third backup for my video files.

Thanks for spending part of your day with me!

Cheers & 72,
Thomas (K4SWL)

PS: Consider joining our QRPer.net discussion board! It’s an active community of radio operators who enjoy helping and supporting each other. It’s also the best place to ask any questions you might have about radios, field activities, antennas, or pretty much anything amateur radio. Click here to join.

One thought on “A Peaceful POTA Stop at Lake James with the Penntek TR-45L”

  1. In the blog post you list your key as the “CW Morse “Pocket Paddle,” but you are actually using a different key.

    Bill, W8BC

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.