Florida Is Being Heard Again
Signal Lab
Operator Spotlight · KA8JIL · Lake Wales, Florida
Florida Is Being Heard Again
Tom Anderson, KA8JIL, has flown a Greyline DX Flagpole in Lake Wales, Florida, since 2020. This September it needed a new pair of insulators. The pair went out, Tom put it in, and then he sent us two sentences that are the whole story.
"Old Glory is waving better than ever. Florida is being heard again."
— Tom Anderson, KA8JIL · Lake Wales, Florida
KA8JIL's flagpole in Lake Wales, back up and flying.
Back On The Air
Tom did not wait long to test it. In his words:
"Just in the last few days I have worked Fiji, Samoa, Japan, Turkey, Hawaii and all around Europe on 100 watts or less."
— Tom, KA8JIL
Where the signal went. One flagpole, 100 watts or less.
He knows the trade, too: given a free hand, he would love a beam on a big tower. In a Florida HOA, he does not get a free hand. The flagpole, in his words, "has been a great alternative" — and the HOA is happy with it.
Why A Fresh Pair Of Insulators Matters
On a Greyline, the fiberglass insulators do two jobs at once. Electrically, the feedpoint insulator is the break between the two halves of the dipole — the place the signal is fed in. Mechanically, the insulators are joints in the pole itself, carrying the sections above them through every gust. Six years of Florida sun, salt air, and storm season ask a lot of both jobs.
Tom noticed the mechanical half right away: "I am not sure why but the antenna is standing better than ever, perfectly vertical." New insulators seat the sections true again, and a pole that stands plumb is a pole that is carrying its load the way it was designed to. If your Greyline has been standing a few seasons, the insulators are worth a look on your next checkup — chalking, hairline cracks, or a joint that has started to lean are the signs.
CW, POTA, And Old Skills Coming Back
Tom works a little of everything: SSB, digital, and CW. He hunts POTA — Parks on the Air, where operators set up portable stations in parks and the rest of us chase them from home — and he is working CW on purpose, as he puts it, "trying to get my old skills back."
That is the best reason there is to chase parks on CW: every activation is a short, friendly exchange at a reasonable speed, again and again. If you want to sharpen your own code the way Tom is, the CWops CW Academy teaches it live, with real teachers, and the POTA spotting page shows which parks are on the air right now.
The Build
- Antenna: Greyline DX Flagpole, no radials, flying the flag in a Florida HOA since 2020
- September 2026: new Greyline insulator pair — "standing better than ever, perfectly vertical"
- Power: 100 watts or less
- Modes: SSB, CW, and digital; POTA hunting on CW
Keep Yours Standing
Five minutes on the ground each fall catches what a season of weather loosens. Look at the insulators, snug the joints, check the feedpoint for water.
More Operator Stories
Eighty Meters After Twenty-One Years · N3EQF, another Florida HOA, another band reopened.
Twelve Feet vs. Hurricane Milton · KC4OS, still standing at 120 mph.
Watch the bands tonight — live cluster, RBN, and conditions run free on our DX Console, where Greyline owners glow gold. KA8JIL is one of them.
Thanks to Tom for the report and the photos. Questions about your own antenna after a few seasons? Call 435-200-4902 — an operator answers.
73, Jon KL2A
Ham Radio is fun again! Pass it on... 73
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