Australian stations kicked into high gear at the plunging Rockwork cliff this morning as 558-6WA in Wagin, Western Australia managed a pretty decent signal on a new-design 8 inch (20cm) FSL antennas (

Hi J.P. (and Max), During the worldwide Ultralight Radio Boom in early 2008 we had a very dedicated group of volunteers to handle administration, a classification and awards program, numerous Ultralig

Amen to that, home town brother! The reality is that when you spend some serious vacation $$ to show up at an ocean side cliff and/ or exotic overseas ocean beach with FSL antennas and completely depe

Thanks Steve (and Dave), The possibility that the "Q" of older variable caps degrades over time because of environmental factors is interesting, and I appreciate your experimentation regarding this. T

Hi Gord, The "N50 384P" variable cap from Mike's Electronic Parts (at the link you posted above) is exactly the same as the one from Oren Elliot Products, despite the much cheaper price. Oren Elliot i

<<< Or the one with the 8:1 drive here: https://www.mikeselectronicparts.com/product/384pf-air-variable-capacitor-with-81-planetary-reduction-drive/ I’d like to substitute the one on my shiny new 5” F

Hi Steve, <<< Where are you obtaining the latest 0219 variable caps--from the manufacturer or from Mike's Electronics? This is certainly a very interesting finding. 73, Steve >>> During the Pandemic I

Hi Steve, Thanks for running these detailed "Q" tests between the 1162/46 and 660/46 Liz wire at various frequencies with the HP4342A Q meter. This kind of detailed test is something which would not b

<<< Hi Gary, Your new 6 inch FSL is a step towards higher gain in a relatively small package. I look forward to a YouTube review. >>> Thanks Todd, The master plan behind this new 6" FSL design was to

Hi Gord (and Todd), Todd, thanks for your interest and questions about the new 6" FSL design, which I plan to answer in detail within a day or so. Gord, 660/46 Litz wire was actually used in all of th

Paul, The solution is a "rubber locking tab," which is precut on one side to fit around the curved PVC fitting, and cut flat on the other side to fit up against the rubber plumbing coupler. The rubber

<<< Here's a quick demo of my newly constructed 3.5" FSL. Reception is of the clear channel 50K watt station CFZM in Toronto under poor conditions. FSL Antenna Demo with Tecsun PL-660This FSL uses 140

Dan and Todd, 1566-3NE has always had an overachieving signal, and it was a downright pest for me during a visit to Aitutaki in the Cook Islands in April of 2018. It ran the Australia Overnight progra

Hi Max, Actually there have been quite a few FSL's hard wired into DSP-chip Ultralight radios, and some of them work quite well. Most of the attempts have been with the Tecsun PL-380, which seems to t

Thanks Gary. The FSL is very easy to master on radios like the 2010, 803A, 880 etc and similar. The later DSP chip radios like the Skywave etc requires some skill to hear the "peak" as they are quite

<<< Gary, That makes sense and I totally understand that disclaimer. The rods I obtained are rated with a permeability of 400, which I believe is the same as the Russian surplus units. Unless there is

Chuck, Thanks for the additional information about the Chinese-made 140mm x 8mm ferrite rods. Unfortunately, since my own FSL was constructed with the Russian surplus ferrite rods ordered from a selle

Hi Chuck, <<< To follow on to Todd's question, I am gathering parts to construct the 3.5" Frequent Flyer FSL and have obtained 27 140mm x 8mm ferrite rods (instead of the specified 160mm x 8mm) 45 fee

Hi Again Todd, <<< Recently an Australian DXer constructed a 135 mm diameter MW FSL using forty one Jaycar LF1010 (9 x 100 mm) ferrite rods. These rods are more affordable than anything else available

Because it was sandwiched in between major Ultralight "Frequent Flyer" DXpeditions to Hong Kong and Kauai last year, my own results from the August 2019 Rockwork Cliff DXpedition have never been writt