The TSA-friendly miniature FSL antennas were designed to provide high
DXing gain for hobbyists on long range travel, especially to places where large
external antennas are forbidden. Those who have tried out this new DXing option
seem to become pretty quickly hooked on it. Craig Barnes, Pete Taylor and I
have all made multiple DXing trips to Hawaii and other places, and my biggest
hobby thrill was taking one of these miniature FSL's to the Cook islands in
April, and tracking down long-range AM DX from exotic places like India (at
over 8,000 miles), Bangladesh, Mongolia, Cambodia and Brazil.
Unfortunately, one of the critical construction parts necessary to
assemble this compact FSL antenna is no longer commercially available. Midnight
Science.com (the Crystal Set Society) no longer offers the 365pf "N50P"
miniature variable capacitor with the 8:1 Vernier drive, and they have not
responded to my inquiry about re-stocking. The larger variable cap that they
still do offer (and many other types still available on eBay and other sources)
will not fit inside the ultra-compact "Frequent Flyer" PVC frame. As such,
there is no way to make more of the current, ultra-compact Baby FSL design.
Of course, DXers who already have one of the 5" Bar or 3.5" Rod "Frequent
Flyer" FSL antennas are not affected by this problem, but those DXers who have
not yet secured one of these antennas may need to scramble to track one down.
There are currently about 15 of them that have been built, not including at
least one that I have seen constructed by another DXer (Chuck) according to the
related full assembly article. There are two brand new, fully assembled models
waiting here for the two DXers who requested a model last year, but were told
to wait. These both include the new "rubber locking collar" improvement to the
ferrite rod assembly. Other than that I'll do my best top track down another
supply source for the N50P variable cap, and attempt to assist those who still
have great interest in the miniature FSL antenna, but no way to track one down.
Gary DeBock (in Puyallup, WA, USA)
_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
[email protected]
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca
Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original
contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its
editors, publishing staff, or officers
For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org
To Post a message: [email protected]
