TR-45L pilot run now underway

From John Dillon WA3RNC (Penntek):

"The TR-45L 50-unit pilot run construction is now underway! These first units will be factory wired, tested, and aligned. These units will be available for shipment over the next several weeks. The plan is to have kits available in about 6 to 8 weeks. The kit price is expected to be $430.00. Please understand that this will not be a kit for beginners…"

All the details can be found here.

I have been using a fully loaded TR-45L for about a month now, making contacts from home and from 4 parks (7 activations) to the tune of 425 contacts. If you've worked me on CW since mid-August, you've worked the TR-45L.

I'll be posting details and videos of the rig and its operation soon (if we don't lose power when Ian hits).

TR-45L info from Thomas K4SWL is available here.

Some highlights for now:

• I've used 44-foot doublet (17-40m) fed with 300-ohm twinlead, an EFHW (20-40m), HamSticks (17-80m) and a random wire antennas with the radio. For both balanced and unbalanced antennas, I'm able to tune to an almost perfect match in receive-only using the in-built tuner, without even having to transmit.
  
• Spectral plots have been made on all 5 bands - all well within spec. These and other measurements will be posted here Tuesday or Wednesday.
  
• The memory keyer has been much improved, ie it is very forgiving with word spacing inputs, producing a well-timed output despite intentional input errors on my part.

More later...

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