WB8UIN: Four Years of DX from a 28' Greyline Flagpole
Verified Operator · 28' DX Flagpole · Four-Year Owner
WB8UIN: Four Years of DX from a 28' Greyline Flagpole
Bill WB8UIN has been operating his 28' Greyline DX Flagpole for over four years. 100 watts to the antenna. ATU hidden in a faux rock at the base. Russia, Puerto Rico, Slovenia, Italy, Scotland confirmed. The thing that surprised him most? It only took an hour to assemble.
Bill WB8UIN — Four-Year Owner, 28' DX Flagpole
"Performance has been fantastic. It only took me an hour to assemble."
— WB8UIN, on his Greyline 28' DX Flagpole
WB8UIN's 28' DX Flagpole. The MFJ-993BRT remote ATU is hidden inside a faux rock at the base. Old Glory waves above. The antenna is inside it.
The Station
Bill's setup is a study in clean integration. Modest power, smart matching network, careful feedline choices, and an aesthetic finish that keeps the install invisible. Here's the architecture:
Antenna
Greyline 28' DX Flagpole
OCF VDA · 6061-T6 aluminum · ASCE 7-10 wind engineered
Transceiver & Power
Kenwood TS-2000 · 100 watts
Modest power into a multi-band aperture — results speak for themselves
Feedline
LMR-400-DB coax · 6 ferrite clip-ons
Direct burial coax, common-mode chokes for clean RF return
ATU
MFJ-993BRT remote tuner
Hidden inside a faux rock at the antenna base — the aesthetic move
The Hidden-ATU Move
The MFJ-993BRT lives in a faux landscape rock at the antenna base. From the street, you see a flagpole and a rock. That's it. No box, no enclosure, no visible RF hardware.
This is the kind of install detail that separates a competent ham from an artist. Bill didn't ask anyone for permission to do this — he just understood that the antenna disappears when the support hardware also disappears.
The DX
From his QTH on 100 watts, Bill has worked stations across Europe and into the Atlantic and Pacific. A representative slice from one operating year:
- Russia — long-haul polar path
- Slovenia — central Europe
- Italy — southern Europe
- Scotland — UK and northern Atlantic
- Puerto Rico — Caribbean
All from a 28-foot flagpole in his yard, on 100 watts. Bill's RBN signal report screenshot tells the rest of the story:
RBN signal reports for WB8UIN — 28' Greyline DX Flagpole, 100W
One Hour to Air
Bill reports the full antenna went together in about an hour, working from the printed instructions. That matches what we hear from the field consistently — clear documentation, threaded transitions, no special tools needed beyond what's in a typical garage.
Read the Full WB8UIN Case Study
The complete four-year operating profile, station architecture deep-dive, ATU choice rationale, feedline doctrine, and the long-term reliability story — all in one place.
Read the Full Case Study →The Antenna Bill Chose
Same 28' DX Flagpole. Same OCF VDA architecture. 6061-T6 aluminum, ASCE 7-10 wind engineered to 55 MPH at 28 feet, 160 through 6 meters from a single feedpoint. Made in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Related Reading
- WB8UIN Case Study — Full station architecture and four-year operating profile
- AG4FC — MARS operator's 28' flagpole on the Florida coast
- Do I really need a tuner at the base? — Remote vs. shack ATU doctrine
- What is a VDA? Vertical dipole physics explained
- Feedline Physics — coax choices, common-mode chokes, ferrite doctrine
Are you running a Greyline antenna with a story worth telling? Send your install pictures, RBN reports, or DX results to Greyline. We feature verified operators in the Signal Report regularly. Greyline Performance · Sun Valley, Idaho · 435-200-4902 · 73 and good DX.