Have been in a couple of office buildings with metallic coatings (IR
reflective) on windows. Sort of like a large Faraday cage; not much RF
gets in or out including cell and paging. Same situation in some cars
with "Solarshield" windows.
Don't have experience with metal siding, but you're on the right track.
If you don't want to trail a cable, try a passive repeater; indoor
broad pattern or omni antenna cabled to outdoor antenna which has
enough pattern to see repeaters you use; I've seen this work twice. It's
clearly a lossy solution, but is better than a shield.
Other solution is to cob something together with a cordless phone inside
coupled to your stationary rig with outside ant.
GL es 73,
Steve
KL7JT/1
John Geiger wrote:
>I have lived in my present location for 2 years-a
>house with steel siding. I am sure that others live
>in similar setups, with aluminum or steel siding, or
>in metal trailers. I am wondering how bad the metal
>siding affects RF inside. I wasn't too active on VHF
>FM for 10 years before moving here, but now have
>become much more active on the local repeater. I seem
>to have more problems than anyone else does getting
>into the local repeaters with an HT. There seems to
>be spots in the house where I can't get in with 5
>watts. I have tried about every HT on the
>market-Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, with varying results.
>Aftermarket antennas help to varying degrees also, but
>there are still problems. I also notice a decent
>amount of fading at times on receiving the signals
>from the repeater. I know that our local repeater
>isn't the greatest, but am wondering how much of the
>problem is due to my QTH. And no, I won't move
>because I have an awesome house, and can't afford
>vinal siding at this time.
>
>Am I doomed to failure because of all of this steel?
>I notice some problems on receive also. I am
>seriously considering going crossband repeat so I can
>use the outside antennas with my FT100D. The HT is
>nice to be able to move around the house while QSOing,
>instead of being tied to one spot in the shack.
>
>I am interested in others' experiences in similar
>setups. Would UHF work better or worse than 2 meters?
> What else might help in such a situation?
>
>73s John NE0P
>
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