TR-35 group/forum

[ki4mcw]

Does anyone know of a builder's/user's group, or forum, or mailing list, or the like for the Penntek TR-35? I love mine, and would like to compare notes with other owners.

Rob KI4MCW

[Brian - K3ES]

Hi Rob,

I also have a TR-35, and love to run it. I use it for POTA activations, and it is central to a light-weight kit that I put together for activating parks. I have not looked for or found a TR-35 user's group. I have followed posts and videos from Thomas - K4SWL and John - AE5X on use of the radio. The best thing I learned from them was to go after the firmware upgrade to get the memory keying feature.

If there are other TR-35 owners here, maybe we can compare notes.

One thing I did to make life easier was to build a 40m EFHW with links for 30m and 17m (20m comes free as a harmonic of 40m). This gave me an antenna that is resonant on all TR-35 bands.

73 de Brian - K3ES

[ko4rip]

I'm a new ham, BSA Scoutmaster, and general outdoorist. I just received my TR-35 and powered it up today! As soon as I turned it on there was a beautifully clear CQ coming in. I learned cw in high school from my physics teacher and would make contacts under his guidance. It's been years (decades) so I'm reacquainting myself with cw and hope to use the TR-35 in the field with SOTA/POTA. Gladly follow along on this thread.

Kindly,

Angela KO4RIP

[Kurt]

I am halfway thru building my TR35. Maybe I have the first in the UK? I'm not sure. Mine has the latest firmware. Still learning Morse code but getting ever closer to being able to get in the air

[K1GC]

My tools were in boxes this winter with a room redo, so I skipped the kit and got a built TR-35 when they became available. I also sent mine back in for the update and have the memories. The TR-35 quickly became my favorite CW only radio. It is a nicely implemented little rig.

[Brian - K3ES]

I just finished a POTA activation at K-1345. I ran the TR-35 at 5 watts into a linked EFHW inverted V at 30 ft. The tally was 43 CW contacts on 40, 30, and 20m in 1 hour 40 minutes. Great fun, courtesy of the park hunters.

[MarkJY]

Has anyone sent their TR-35 (or chip) in for a firmware update? How did that go? Turn-around time? I’d like to get the two memory slots but have not yet done this.

Mark
W8EWH

[Brian - K3ES]

I sent my TR-35 in for the firmware update with $15 for return shipping, and it was back in my hands in about a week. The process went very smoothly, and I am really happy with the memory keying function. It really helps my workflow during POTA activations by giving me a pause to catch up on logging.

[ki4mcw]

Is anyone else having trouble with the tuning encoder? Mine tunes downward just fine, but when spinning the knob quickly to tune upward, it skips pretty badly, sometimes even ending up on a frequency lower than where it started. It's probably a $3 part, so I'm not offended, just curious if anyone else has seen the same behavior.

Rob KI4MCW

[wg4z]

Does anyone know if the TR-35 has any kind of SWR protection. Some radios fold back the power if the SWR is high.