New 3 inch (76mm) Baby FSL antenna-- a Tiny Thriller

One of the new "lean and mean" FSL designs, the 3 inch Baby FSL was an experiment to wind a coil of the most sensitive MW Litz wire (1162/46) onto the shortest yet ferrite material (100mm x 8mm Russian surplus ferrite rods), while including the razor-sharp tuning "384P" variable cap. The result is a tiny little DXing firecracker weighing only 2.4 pounds (1.1 kg), and as small as an Ultralight radio. In the demo video it boosts daytime DX fringe station 980-CKNW (50 kW at 156 miles) from S1 up to around S9.

[@pe1etr]

Impressive, Gary.

[@DXerGary]

Thanks Peter!

[@ericbueneman1979]

Also can hear second ACI from KOMO 1000.

[@AlexeyDXman]

The Baby FSL antenna can be compared with magnetic loop like Wellbrook ALA1530 or some other?

[@DXerGary]

Hi Alexey, the Baby FSL is a tuned loop antenna, unlike the Wellbrook ALA1530, which is a 50 ohm impedance broadband loop designed for SDR receivers. The tuned FSL antennas provide inductively coupled gain boosts for portable radios.

[@uwepolifka4583]

Looks interesting and it works but the design disregards the proximity effect and so it waisted a lot of the advantages of the design.

[@ertyuiiknbvcx]

Can one make a small kind of pirate chest for the loop and also put the variable cap inside the loop and chest to make it really small or is that bad?

[@DXerGary]

Hi Foreverhere, as long as your pirate chest is made of insulating (electrically transparent) material you can put the entire Baby FSL antenna inside it very easily, but putting the variable cap inside the loop would degrade the performance. The idea has been attempted, but with poor results.

[@christopherjones5982]

Are you making / selling these or other FSLs right now?

[@DXerGary]

Sorry Christopher, I'm not currently making or selling these. With the Ukraine war, the supply of Russian surplus ferrite rods from Ukraine has practically vanished on eBay.