PDF: Analysis and Design of FSL Antennas

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Zoltan Azary, who has written an extensive theoretical analysis of ferrite sleeve loop antennas. This article has a very academic flavor and for those who are interested in antenna design, he welcomes your comments!

Click here to download the 14 page PDF, “Analysis and Design of FSL Antennas: Open Source Hardware Engineering” by Zoltan Azary.

Thank you for sharing this work with us, Zoltan!

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Gabry repairs a problematic Tecun PL-660 encoder

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Gabry Rizzi (IV3MIR), who writes:

Hi, I’m an Italian radio amateur IV3MIR and I have a YouTube channel entirely dedicated to the radio “GabryMir Radio”. I’m sending you the link of one of my latest videos. If you like it I would be happy to see it on your blog.

I hope the automatic youtube translator does a good job.
Cordially 73 and Happy New Year!
Gabry Rizzi IV3MIR

Click here to watch via YouTube.

Note that Closed Captions can be translated into English and other languages.

Thank you for sharing your video with us! I’m happy you were able to sort out the issue with your ‘660 encoder!

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Balazs spots vintage radios in film and in a Budapest pub!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Balázs Kovács, who writes:

Hi Thomas,

Happy New Year! Some pictures in two topics:

1.) First, a nice Zenith H511 Consoltone (MW) got a few seconds of screen time recently in the fourth episode of the third (final) season of “His Dark Materials” series:

 

2.) At the end of December in an old pub in Budapest (Helvecia) I ran into some more or less old radios as a part of the eclectic decoration. Since these are partly Eastern European, they may be less well known elsewhere (deep in the basement, so even if they were still functioning, not many radio signals would reach them anymore):

With best regards,
Balazs

Wow! I love those pub radios!  I especially love the dial markings on the R 926 A!

Thank you for sharing these images, Balazs!

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Frans’ meditation at 198kHz with the Siemens REL 445 E311 b1b

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Frans Goddijn, who writes:

Hi Thomas!

Yesterday was dark and rainy and as I switched on my old Siemens REL 445 E311 b1b there was an interesting snippet of program on BBC4 with a meditation that nicely fitted the afternoon’s atmosphere:

Best regards,

Frans

Wonderful–thank you for sharing that with us, Frans! A warm sound emanating from your Siemens receiver on such a rainy day. Beautiful.

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Video: Nick explores the benchmark Icom IC-R9500

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Nick Booras, who writes:

Hello Thomas

I recently got a new Icom 9500 and have made several in depth videos on it for my YouTube channel including multiple direct comparisons to other premium receivers.

Here is the main overview video:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Thank you for sharing this, Nick. The IC-R9500 is an impressive receiver indeed! 

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Can you help Paul identify this station?

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Walker, who writes:

I had a strong s9+20 signal on 9595kHz Mon Jan 9th, 2023 here in Alaska in the 1900UTC hour with nothing but a repeating loop of the same island-y like music.  The track was about 3-5 minutes long and there was no station announcements of any kind between the one repeating track. It was gone by 2000UTC. No one is listed on eibi, short-wave.info, shortwaveschedule.com or HFCC Raw data for this frequency at this time.

Who is it? It sounded too clear and good to be China, but I suppose that’s possible.

Readers: if you can help Paul, please comment!

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Born in the ER: Andrew’s portable SULA antenna

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Andrew (VK2ZRK), who writes:

Just thought I would share some pics of my SULA build which I constructed in the Emergency department’s antenna building section in between catastrophies here in Australia.

I built it out of 8mm fibreglass tube from a kite supply, 8mm kite nocks, 13mm equal cross irrigation fitting and lots of double wall glue lined heat shrink. The 8mm tube with a short bit of heat shrink is a slip fit into the id of the 13mm equal cross which I secured with more heat shrink.

I then cut the frame to length allowing for the length of the kite nocks. I secured the kite nocks with more heat shrink. I then soldered the resister to 2 lengths of Davis RF 12g antenna wire and fed this through the kite nocks terminating it at the nooelec balun on the opposite side to the resistor.

I think it worked out well. It is very light. I built it to use with my SDRPlay RSPdx.

Thank you to everyone involved in the design process and for providing it to the swling.com community.

Cheers
Andrew VK2ZRK

In all the years I’ve been hosting the SWLing Post, I can safely say that we’ve never featured an antenna constructed in an Emergency Department of a hospital. Thank you, Andrew!

The feedback from the SULA antenna build has been phenomenal. The three-part series detailing the SULA antenna from concept to build was the most popular of 2022 on the SWLing Post

Thank you for sharing the photos of your antenna. What a professional job, Andrew!

Readers, if you’d like to learn more about the SULA antenna, check out this three-part series–a collaboration between the amazing Grayhat and 13dka.

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