Bicycling with radio and a new & improved TR-35: Thanks for the memories...

Antenna mount on rear rack of bike.

With the antenna mount on the bike having proven itself - and with a new microprocessor in the TR-35 - I set out from Floral City FL on a rails-to-trails bike path for dual simultaneous activations of the trail itself and the state forest it enters 10 miles to the south.

The new heart of the TR-35 contains two memories and John WA3RNC was kind enough to supply me with a prototype version for testing.

To my ear, the spacing between words is a bit too long - you can judge for yourself in the video. John agrees and has slightly shortened the spacing. New TR-35's shipping as of today will contain the improved memory with corrected spacing.

The online manual available for download on the TR-35 website has the memory functionality and other new features described.

If you have a currently-existing TR-35, you may be interested in reading the upgrade procedure detailed on Thomas K4SWL's page here. Also good to know is that John WA3RNC only requires the microprocessor be sent back - not the entire TR-35. But those who didn't build their TR-35 may not be comfortable removing and replacing the chip, in which case, I suppose they'll be sending the rig back.

To see the memory keyer in action you can skip ahead in the video below to the 8m 15s mark.

 

The bike ride was awesome and all components involved performed perfectly - even the weather. There are many rails-to-trails paths in Florida and I look forward to more rides on them, both with and without QRP.

For those who don't know, rails-to-trails are old railroad paths that are no longer used for trains. The rails have been ripped up and the paths paved over for use by bikes and pedestrians.

I'm hoping to do the trans-Florida path in October, once the weather cools. 175 miles of car-free riding from St. Petersburg on the Gulf Coast to Titusville on the Atlantic.

With QRP.

But today's ride was only 22 miles, split in the middle with the POTA activations.

Band conditions were terrible and there were very few (two) QRPTTF participants worked but the POTA hunters and activators came through. I worked several other parks from my trailside set-up.

PS:

For those asking, the retractable feet can be found here.

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