abstract: The study explores methodology of soil moisture and salinity measurement based on FDR frequency domain reflectometry technique. As compared to the TDR time domain reflectometry this technique has potential possibility of wider application by building more economical measurement devices. The fundamental part of the study concerns the design of two-rod probes and methodology allowing to obtain the frequency spectrum of soil complex dielectric permittivity. Especially interesting were results of frequency dependent correlation between volumetric water content of soil measured by thermogravimetric method and the soil refractive index. The results confirmed the advantage of using high frequencies of signal on the measurement selectivity of the real part of soil dielectric permittivity. It was found that the results obtained for low frequencies were dependent on soil salinity. The obtained results of imaginary part of dielectric permittivity allow to calculate soil salinity by using salinity index. The measured data of moisture and salinity of investigated soils determined by FDR technique were comparable with the corresponding ones determined by TDR technique. Moreover, the measurement of frequency spectrum of complex dielectric permittivity give possibility to evaluate other physical parameters of soil, for example the volume fraction of bound water.