Our friend Alan (W2AEW) just published this excellent short video demonstrating how to quickly tune the Penntek TR-45L’s Z-Match ATU. Of course, this same technique can be applied to the Emtech ZM-2 or any other manual Z-Match tuner:
An excellent tutorial, Alan! Thank you!
Many thanks to Paul (W7CPP) who writes:
If you haven’t seen this it is worth watching. Alan does a great job calculating the actual versus selected keyer speed on the KX2 and TR-45:
Click here to watch on YouTube.
Brilliant video! Thanks for sharing this, Paul.
Alan’s YouTube channel is one of my favorites. If you haven’t already, hop over there and subscribe!
Many thanks to Mike (N2HTT) who recently reached out:
Hi Tom,
I recently treated myself to a Penntek TR-45L, and I think it’s the perfect field CW rig, except for one thing: the viewing angle sitting on a table is too vertical.
I made myself a tilt cradle that holds the rig at a 15 degree angle. It is form fitted to the rig, allows good clearance to all the controls front and rear, and raises it up off the table just a smidge.
Mike thanks/blames me for his purchase of the TR-45L and asked if I wanted one of his 3D-printed tilt cradles for my TR-45L. I just received it today at no cost to me–thanks, Mike!–and I really like the angle for using the TR-45L in my shack (and in the field, for sure).
Mike is selling these for $25 in his Etsy shop. Click here to check them out!
Here are some photos:
Thanks again, Mike, for sending one to me–I really appreciate it. Now I just need to convince you to purchase even more radios! 🙂
The TR-45L is a gem–you’ll love it!
Many thanks to Davey (KU9L) who shares a link to this news from John (WA3RN), owner, and designer of Penntek radios. John writes:
I have been considering for some time the future of the Penntek Instruments amateur radio products. This old man isn’t getting any younger and is in fact beginning to get tired. With the current production run of the TR-45L QRP transceiver getting close to being complete, I decided that this is a good time to finally retire at 77 years of age and maybe catch a breath. I have therefore chosen not to order parts for another run of these radios. As of late-March 2024, in-house parts remain for about 45 of the standard TR-45L units and about 70 of the “Skinny” version. The remaining TR-35 parts will allow for an additional 65 units, either kits or built radios. As I heard on a radio commercial, “Once they’re gone, they’re gone”. After these remaining radios are sold, I will remain available for repair and service of the Penntek transceivers. Thanks to all those who have purchased and enjoyed WA3RNC products over the years…
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Penntek transceivers, so this is sad news. But, I am also very happy for John to make this decision about retiring.
That said, if you’ve been on the fence about buying a TR-45L, TR-45L Skinny, or TR-35, I suggest you do so while John has new units!
These are brilliant radios with excellent audio characteristics, robust front-ends, and some of the best ergonomics you’ll find out there. Keying is smooth and provides proper QSK.
Plus, I think they’re one of the best-looking radios on the market (the TR-45L series especially).
Since all of the Penntek radios started out life as kits, they’re also easy to open and modify/repair.
I don’t have a crystal ball, but I’m willing to bet that once John’s inventory has been depleted, these radios will hold their own on the used market much like other beloved radio models (I’m thinking specifically of the KX1 and MTR-3B). It’ll be interesting to see where used pricing is in, say, 2026.
Again, if you’ve been on the fence, now is the time to make a decision, in my opinion. It looks like John will continue to provide support after his retirement, which is great news as well.
Here’s wishing John all the best in his retirement! Thanks for creating radios that bring so much QRP joy!
On Thursday, December 28, 2023, I had the good fortune of meeting up with Jonathan (KM4CFT) at the Zebulon Vance Historic Birthplace (K-6856) to play a little POTA.
You might recognize Jonathan’s callsign because he has a popular YouTube channel and also produces excellent EFHW antenna kits.
These days, Jonathan lives in Colorado, but he’s originally from western North Carolina. We met once before when he was in town visiting his folks. That previous time was very short, though; this time, we wanted to meetup and fit in a POTA activation together.
We arranged to meet around 2:00 in the afternoon at the Vance Birthplace.
We decided to deploy one of Jonathan’s End-Fed Half-Wave antennas. He cut this particular one for 20 meters.
We set up under the picnic shelter with the antenna essentially in a sloper configuration.
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I brought along a couple of radios that Jonathan had yet to operate. He chose to use the Penntek TR-45L (great choice!).
One wrinkle: Jonathan operates with his paddle in “reverse” with the left paddle sending dashes and the right sending dits.
Unfortunately, the TR-45L doesn’t have a software function to flip between “normal” and “reverse” settings. No problem, though: Jonathan simply turned his key (a BaMaKey TP-III) upside down! Problem solved!
The only annoying issue was the 45L speaker–something inside the chassis or speaker assembly was rattling/buzzing with louder signals and with the sidetone. After noticing the speaker vibration at an activation in South Carolina a few months ago, I opened up the TR-45L at the QTH and tried to tighten down anything that could resonate inside the chassis. My fix seemed to work until we powered it up for Jonathan to use. I may have to add some padding around the speaker assembly if I can’t locate the culprit inside the radio–it could be pretty much anything.
Jonathan plugged along and paid no attention to the buzz, nor my fiddling with the radio while he operated. (You’re a good sport, OM!).
Here’s Jonathan’s QSO Map:
After he completed his activation, Jonathan handed over the radio to me.
Since I couldn’t sort out the acoustic buzz/vibration without opening the radio on the picnic table, I opted to swap out the TR-45L with my Discovery TX-500.
I hopped on the air and logged quite a few stations on 20 meters. It was serious fun!
Here’s my QSO Map:
Here’s our 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 monetization turned off on YouTube, 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.
Jonathan, it was great hanging with you and, again, I’m so impressed with your CW progress. It seems like only yesterday when you started your CW journey!
When folks are passing through western NC it can be difficult for our schedules to align for a POTA meetup, but I’m so happy when they do.
Thank you for joining us on this joint activation!
I hope you enjoyed the field report and ctivation 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 certainly 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 make 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! Have an amazing weekend!
Cheers & 72,
Thomas (K4SWL)
On September 30, 2023, my uncle Reggie passed away at the age of 83. I was incredibly fond of him. His funeral was to take place in Georgetown, South Carolina on Tuesday, October 3rd.
The funeral time was confirmed on Sunday evening (Oct 1), so I made all of my travel plans that night. I decided to leave early Monday morning and drive to Myrtle Beach where I’d reserved a hotel room for one night. I’d then attend the funeral the following day and drive back to my home in the mountains. Round trip, this would amount to about 12 hours of driving.
This, of course, was a pretty somber reason to take a road trip–although it would be nice to spend time with my SC family. I wanted to make the most of my travels and fit in a little “radio therapy” along the way. I glanced over the POTA map for a park that might make for a nice break from travels.
Before hitting the sack Sunday evening, I remembered that many months ago Keith (KY4KK) told me to give him a heads-up anytime I planned to pass by Florence, SC. I knew that Florence would be a simple detour on my journey, so I reached out to Keith and asked if he and his POTA buddies Tommy (N4GS) and Steve (W4JM) might, by some chance, be available for a quick POTA activation. Of course, this was very late notice.
Keith wrote back and recommended that I activate Lee State Park–he and Tommy were both available but, unfortunately, Steve had other plans.
Monday morning, I hit the road and arrived at Lee State Park in the early afternoon.
I pulled into the park driveway and was greeted by a number of Halloween displays. Evidently, the park staff loves decorating for holidays.
I pulled into the visitor’s center parking lot and immediately met Keith and Tommy.
After a quick greeting, Keith said, “Thomas, our job here is to get you on the air as smoothly as possible so you can continue your trip.”
Herein lies what I love about amateur radio and POTA specifically: even though Keith, Tommy, and I had only just met in person, they were instant friends.
I must say, Lee State Park is the perfect POTA park; there are loads of tall trees, covered picnic areas, open spaces, ample parking, and ham-friendly staff. It just doesn’t get better than this!
We walked to a large covered picnic area and Keith suggested that we deploy his 40 meter EFHW antenna.
I agreed without hesitation!
Unlike me, Keith is adept at using a slingshot to deploy his antennas.
As I started setting up the radio, Keith aimed his slingshot and snagged a really high branch on the first go. This 40M EFHW was being deployed as a vertical!
I decided to bring along my Penntek TR-45L on this trip. I’m glad I did: it was ideal for this sort of POTA activation! Continue reading A welcome POTA layover with friends at Lee State Park in South Carolina
I’m getting used to having an electric vehicle for my weekly travels including POTA and SOTA excursions.
My Volvo C40 has a published range of about 226 miles on a 90% charge, but I find that I actually get more than that. I almost never need to recharge from a public charger–I just plug it in at home.
At least once a week, I visit my parents in Hickory, NC and that round trip (including errand running in town) logs a good +/- 200 miles. By the time I return to the QTH, I typically have a comfortable 20% charge left on the battery.
Many of the parks I activate in that travel corridor are 20-30 minute detours off of Interstate 40 (for example: Lake James SP, South Mountains SP, Tuttle Educational SF). They have no negative impact on my ability to make it back to the QTH with battery capacity to spare.
Parks, however, that are still close to Hickory, but in the opposite direction of home, may necessitate a quick charge at one of the many public charging stations along the road. Not a big deal, but it’s kind of fun when I can do a full trip on one charge.
On Monday, September 11, 2023, I had a full afternoon open and really wanted to fit in a proper hike. One of my favorite easy six mile loop trails–the Lakeshore Trail– is at Lake Norman State Park.
Lake Norman, however, is in the opposite direction of the QTH and is about an 80 minute round trip. I fit in errands along the way, but going there means I’ll need a bit of a charge to get back home the following day.
After a little research, though, I discovered that Lake Norman (much like Lake James) has free EV charging at their visitor’s center! Woo hoo!
I arrived at the park in the early afternoon and–whew!–both of the EV charging stations were free. In fact, the visitors’ center parking lot was almost empty–I would have expected a few more cars. I found that curious.
I plugged in my car, put on my hiking boots, grabbed my hiking sticks, then made my way to the spur trail that connects the visitors’ center parking lot to the Lakeshore loop.
Only, when I reached the trailhead, there was a notice stating that all of the trails were temporarily closed. Wait…what?
This may explain the lack of visitors.
I was bummed to say the least. My backup plan would be to hike the road at Lake Norman, but that’s not nearly as fun as a proper trail.
I then walked to the visitors’ center and asked the staff inside about the trail closures. They pointed out that there was one small loop trail–next to the visitors’ center–that was still open.
I was pleased to hear that and decided that instead of hiking one long loop, I could simply hike the same small loop several times.
I thanked them then gave them a donation (which I was going to do anyway) especially since I was getting free EV charge!
I walked out the side entrance of the building and onto the Alder Trail.
It was a very nice little loop trail and long enough that I didn’t feel like I was walking in circles. Continue reading POTA at Lake Norman: Beautiful day for a TR-45L trailside activation (and hunting VE6LK)!
Back in March, I received an email from Mike Giannaccio (W5REZ) the owner of REZ Antenna Systems–he was curious if I’d like to check out his REZ Ranger 80 antenna system.
At the time, my plate was pretty full, so he arranged to send it to me on loan in July.
If you’re not familiar, the Ranger 80 is a portable vertical antenna with a tuning coil at the base that employs a sliding tap for tuning. The Ranger 80 will cover anywhere from 80 – 15 meters without needing any sort of external matching device (like an ATU).
If you’re familiar with the Wolf River Coils antenna systems, then you’re familiar with this type of vertical antenna. The difference is that the Ranger 80 is built to what I could only describe as MilSpec standards.
Much of the Ranger 80’s components are CNC machined from premium materials. It sports a Delrin body, black anodized 6061 aluminum, and all stainless steel hardware.
This is not a featherweight antenna: it has the heft to match the caliber of materials used in its construction. It’s not an inexpensive antenna either–it’s currently about $560 US at DX Engineering.
The Ranger 80 is also rated for 500W SSB and 250W CW/Digital–in other words, quite a bit more power than I’d ever use in the field, but this design will make activators and field ops happy that like to push some wattage.
I was curious how easy the Ranger 80 would be to deploy and tune, so on Sunday, August 6, 2023, I took it to one of my favorite parks on the planet.
I wasn’t alone on this trip: it was a proper family picnic with my wife, daughters and, of course, Hazel.
The weather was very moody that day–driving up to the park, we watched clouds and mists rise up through the trees like waves crashing on a rocky coast line. Continue reading POTA on Mount Mitchell: The new REZ Ranger 80 and how to use the Over/Under method to coil wire and cable
On the morning of Wednesday, June 14, 2023, I left the QTH with a goal in mind: fit in a POTA activation before taking my sweet mom to an appointment that afternoon. As I’ve mentioned in the past, there are about four park options that are easy detours off the 1.5 hour drive to my parents’ home, so it was very much doable.
I decided to go to Tuttle (K-4861) since it would be very close to one of my favorite lunch spots (Food Matters in Morganton). I figured I could fit in an activation, then grab lunch after, and still make the appointment with time to spare.
In almost every case, this is how I do POTA these days: it’s all about fitting in activations with weekly travels and errands. It’s rare that I simply plot out an activation or two the day before. More often than not, I schedule my activation a max of 30 minutes before I arrive at the park.
I arrived at Tuttle around 11:30 AM and had the park to myself. There were no other guests there, just park rangers. And lots of birds.
A couple days prior, I received a cable assembly sample in the post: a 25 foot RG-316 cable with BNCs on both ends and three series 31 in-line ferrites from ABR Industries. These slim in-line chokes are a new option ABR is offering, hence the reason they send me the assembly.
I speak about this at length in my video below, but I’ve been a customer of ABR Industries for well over a decade now. ABR is a USA supplier of high quality cable, cable assemblies, and other cable components. I’m a huge fan. In fact, I wrote about them separately on the SWLing Post a couple years ago.
Full disclosure: ABR Industries sent me this cable assembly (and one other I’ll feature in a future report) free of charge. They are not a sponsor (although I’d love for them to be) and I’ve no other relationship with them other than being a customer.
I go into greater detail in my video, but I learned a while back just how important it is to use high-quality cable assemblies, adapters, and connectors in the field and at the QTH.
As a field operator, I know my cable assemblies are essentially consumables. With all of the winding, deployments, packing, being outdoors, rough handling, etc. they will eventually fail. (In fact, Alan made a point of this in his latest field report when a mishap in the field broke a good assembly.)
High quality cable assemblies will not only provide better longevity and better durability, but also less loss and overall higher performance. It’s worth the cost because when I hike to a summit, the last think I want to discover is that my cable assembly has failed.
Note that I also build my own cable assemblies (indeed, I feel like all radio ops should learn this simple skill) and try to use quality components and best practices to make the best assemblies I can.
Take-away is: don’t skimp on your cable assemblies. I no longer buy my cable assemblies from random suppliers on eBay or Amazon, I buy them from companies that build and test their assemblies within our hobby; companies like PackTenna, Tufteln, Messi & Paoloni, and ABR Industries.
Here ends my PSA…let’s get on with the activation!
I spent quite a bit of time talking about cable assemblies, then I moved straight into setting up my field gear. I launched a line and deployed my cannibalized 40m EFHW again and connected it to the Penntek TR-45L. Continue reading POTA with the Penntek TR-45L and importance of quality cable assemblies!
Monday, April 10, 2023, was a spectacular day weather-wise. Spring was out in all its glory making it impossible to stay indoors.
That day, I was driving back to the QTH and made a little detour to the Clear Creek Access of South Mountains State Park.
According to my calculations, I had about one hour to play radio. I did have a firm deadline to hop off the air because I needed to take my daughter to a tennis lesson that afternoon. Couldn’t be late to that!
As I pulled into the Clear Creek Access parking area, I noticed a family of five grabbing picnic supplies from their car.
For the first time ever, there was going to be competition for the one single picnic table at the Clear Creek access!
Actually, there would be no competition at all because there was no way in the world I’d ever take over the picnic table when a family could use it. 🙂
They had a much better reason to use a picnic table than me. Frankly, I was super pleased to see someone else besides a POTA activator using that table. I get a real thrill out of seeing families enjoying our public lands.
Plus, I don’t need a table to play POTA so it was a brilliant excuse to pull the picnic blanket out of the car and set up under a beautiful antenna support…I mean, tree.
For this activation, I decided to use my Penntek TR-45L and, for an antenna, two 28 foot lengths of wire.
Continue reading Picnic Blanket POTA on a beautiful spring day at South Mountains State Park
