While living in a Gloucestershire English Regency town house in the
early 1980's, with a garden of about 20 x 60 feet, I managed 160 meters
reasonably well by using an Inverted L antenna strung up along the side
of my house to the top of the TV antenna, and then out towards the back
of the garden, to an apple tree. The end of the antenna was less than 10
feet from the ground, and the vertical portion of the antenna was about
30 feet. Construction was #27 teflon hook-up wire. I used 6 short radials,
all within my garden, but what really seemed to work best was when I used
the heating oil tank as a ground (!). The neighboring house was just 15
feet away, with my antenna squeezed between the two dwellings. Running
just 100 watts, I managed many QSO's to the USA, Europe, and Africa.
The "horizontal" (actually sloping) portion of the antenna had some
wiggles in it to make it fit, but I fed it directly with coax, and pruned
the length until I found resonance. For your somewhat shorter garden, you
might consider adding a small amount of inductance to the antenna at the
knee of the antenna.
I think you can easily get on Top Band within your estate, and I encourage
you to give it a try! Good Luck with your experiment.
Frank
WB3AVN
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