For many years, I lived in apartments and condos. The best
apartment antenna I ever had was a multi-band 1/2 wave dipole with
wires for 80, 40, 20, and 10 all connected to a common center
feed, fed with RG213 (when living on Long Island, NY). It was a 3
story building, and I was permitted access to the roof. I used a 10
ft steel mast for the center insulator, and fanned the wires out in
both directions. It worked great. As a matter of fact, I remember a
bunch of LIDXA guys stopping by to see it, cuz they couldn't
believe how well it worked, especially on 80.
At other QTHs, I had no outdoor access and ran short dipoles or
random wires through attic crawlspaces, etc. They worked
reasonably well too.
IMO, verticals suck - plain and simple. If you don't have a salt
marsh or 20+ radials underneath, a random wire or dipole will
outperform a vertical almost every time. I once tried one of those
no-radial multi-band verticals, and a simple dipole at 30 ft was
about 4-S units superior.
73,
Barry
--
Barry Kutner, W2UP Internet: w2up@mindspring.com
Newtown, PA Frankford Radio Club
List Sponsored by AN Wireless: AN Wireless handles Rohn tower systems,
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