Re: [IRCA] Sat-Sun-Monday - TP Oct 8, 2012 / Jordan River Pacific version

[d1028gary@xxxxxxx]

Hi Colin,

<<<   Was testing out Gary Debock's innovative surplus ferrite rod
antenna design -- its performance comparable to a 4' open frame
loop. As it turns out, for me, this could have well been the
single worse series of days for radio listening.   >>>

Sorry that the DXing weekend didn't meet your expectations, Colin. I'm sure that you gave it your best efforts, but it might be a little optimistic to expect optimal TP-DXing results during the current wild propagation, and without a little FSL practice time. The FSL antennas are weird creations, and do not behave at all like typical air core loops. 

The single-optimized frequency FSL antennas (as opposed to the Broadband variety, which four Perseus-SDR DXers now have) have much sharper tuning than equivalent air core loops, and take some time to get used to. Skillfully peaking both the FSL's tuning system and inductive coupling distance is necessary for best results, and even in my own case, this required some serious practice time. FSL's can also provide razor-sharp nulls-- if you know how to get them.

In a DXpedition situation where live DXing requires quick frequency changes and FSL adjustments, I never try to tune an FSL antenna by listening to an inductively-coupled radio's audio response. Especially on the high end of the MW band, such attempts take too much time during DXpeditions, where time is at a premium. I always tune the FSL's visually, by using the Sony ICF-2010's LED signal display to show when the FSL's frequency matches that of the ICF-2010 SSB spotting receiver. This combo can accurately tune the FSL with a couple of seconds, even on an upper-band frequency like 1701 kHz.

FSL antennas used to be quite rare, but there are now 10 DXers using the single-frequency variety, so it's probably time for a detailed article providing the full operating instructions. Anyway, Colin, if you keep practicing, I'm sure that you will discover all the little FSL quirks-- and obtain maximum benefit from the antenna.

73, Gary DeBock (in Puyallup, WA, USA)        





-----Original Message-----
From: cafe-swl <cafe-swl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Mon, Oct 8, 2012 12:54 pm
Subject: [IRCA] Sat-Sun-Monday - TP Oct 8, 2012  / Jordan River Pacific version



Spent Friday night through Monday morning at the Point No
Point cabins near Jordan River, B.C facing out over the pacific --
http://www.pointnopointresort.com/

Was testing out Gary Debock's innovative surplus ferrite rod
antenna design -- its performance comparable to a 4' open frame
loop. As it turns out, for me, this could have well been the
single worse series of days for radio listening.

MONDAY: Up at 1340 UTC and stuck with it til the stroke of 1400 UTC.

Some strong carriers in some odd places - and no audio of
note anywhere -- complete absence of any Pacific Asian audio.

Having just read Nick's report, I should have hung out for
sun rise and harvested at least a shred of radio dignity -
This was DAY THREE of the new Russian Surplus Gary Debock
antenna shake down (AKA, the Flux capacitor, AKA R2D2 [my wife's
favorite antenna nickname so far] -- AKA the Russian Gatling Gun
and now my official model number: SRFLA-50 {Surplus Russian Ferrite 
Loop Antenna -
model 50 > 50 cores after all...}

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is an awe inspiring morning with the 
dial
choked with so many signals as to leave the listener overwhelmed and
1 is the result of a lightning strike to the front end, or dead 
batteries
or an ionosphere that is utterly missing in action -- I would rate this
morning as 2 -- and that is being generous.

SUNDAY:

Conditions could not have been that bad but they were much worse than
Saturday morning - 529 Alaska weather station was almost full 
deflection
on the Sony 2010! Promising. As I moved up the dial it was revealed
that there would be lots of carriers with little snippets of audio
here and there. Loud carriers on 558, 639, 702, 729, 738, 783, 792, 
801,
891, 1008, 1098 teased me incessantly but never revealed more than
an illusion of audio. If memory serves me, audio may have appeared
briefly on 774, 828 and 972.

I stuck with it from 1330 to 1410. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would
have given it a generous rating of 3.

SATURDAY:

I arose with high hopes at 12:55 UTC -- and it was clearly obvious this
was too early for anything - again, lots of hets on the lower band (531 
- 1000)
and no audio anywhere - as an indicator of potential, the Alaska 
weather station was
well placed on 529khz. Things picked up over 15 minutes or so and some 
top
tier Japanese stations poked their noses through on 774 and 828. Korea 
on 972 was
at fair levels at times - and the best signal on the band was 1566 
Korea.
There were hets on almost every low band channel from 531 up but 
nothing jumped
out of the radio. I kept at it until the sun came up over the West and 
it became
clear that this particular morning was low mediocre. Funny thing, I got 
up early on
Friday to give the SRFL-50 a quick run and I was flabbergasted by the 
sheer
strength of the one channel I dropped in on; 774 Japan.
Overall, I would rate Saturday morning as a 3.5 - hardly worth the 
effort.

I am currently thinking about advance shipping the SRFl-50 to Hawaii -
but that will depend on it showing off its true powers between now and 
January.
I actually have my fingers crossed that everyone else did as poorly --
making my experience less miserable.

As a side note - this was the first weekend away in a long time that I
packed nothing but 1 "large" radio (the 2010) and two small radios;
the Eton E100 barefoot (great performer) and the G3 Traveler +
1 antenna, the SRFA-50 (apologies to Gary for giving his antenna a 
product number!)

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