Been reading every post in this thread and LOVING it. Brings back memories!
For years I lived in the city, then I bought 1 acre in the country, but
went away to College for 2 years and stayed in a number of apt bldg's etc.
Here's a mish-mash of ideas that worked for me in no particular order.
Some antenna ideas for those with small lots or antenna restrictions:
A couple clever things I did while away at college were.(if you can get away
with it)
Huge multiband dipole (6m-40m) in the attic of a large apt bldg.. (placed
there when the least # of tennants on the top floor were home during the
middle of the day)(be careful to duck and step only on the beams!)
Ran rg58 coax out a roof vent and clevering into my bedroom window alongside
trim. (top floor of course!)
The piece de resistance' was for 2m, 6m & 10m I took an old channel 2 TV
antenna and played with the elements.
4el on 6m, 5el on 2m and loaded the boom for 10m with a simple gamma match.
I u-bolted this to a stink pipe vent and turned it with a tiny RS rotor. No
one was the wiser. Looked just like any other TV antenna in the neigborhood
to the untrained eye.
I practically laughed every day I looked up and saw it. That little yagi up
40' worked pretty darn well. I ran 10-20w on all bands (just to play it
safe) and not a single TVI/RFI complaint in a year. Everyone knew I was a
ham cuz my car has 5 antennas on it + the call plates give it away.
One other place I stayed at I used an R7000 buried inside a Mountain Ash
tree and then a homebrew horizontal 6m loop mounted at the top of it. This
was practically invisible for 6m-40m work.
At another place I made a 20m ground plane by slinking up a tiny piece of
copper wire alongside a wooden flagpole my landlord had attached to his back
deck, For the ground plane I used 2 -1/4wl wires snaked under his 2 x 4
decking (with his permission). NOt a single hole drilled, no one knew the
antenna was there (except the landlord) and it really did work quite well. I
think I could have placed a second band on the other side of the flagpole
(with some interaction) and still no one would've known.
At my Dads place years ago, my favorite stealthers were dipoles strung
along, barely tucked under the very edge of the shingles on his roof, either
on the gable ends (as inverted Vees) or full out dipoles on the long sides
of his house. I probably did have interaction with the shingles, but I was
14 and I didn't care. (no wonder that 468/f(MHz) formula never seemed to
work well! Dad had a "no nail rule", though I eventually did get permission
to install a single eyebolt which I musta strung a mile of wire off of,
heading out to various trees, poles and sheds in the yard, hi!
Heck in a few years I had a couple hundred DXCC's with 40w-100w using junky
tube rigs and a str8 key!
I loaded my old 5/8wl CB ground plane antenna (which were once common sites
and not so frowned upon) on 10m thru 20m
I had a rusty Hygain tribander (and below it a 3-el 6m beam) at the 25'
level, right in the top of a large willow tree. Hardly noticeable unless you
were looking for it.
There were no antenna restrictions (per se) in my old neigborhood, but my
Landlord (Dad) didn't like the looks of all those antennas, and there were
the odd RFI complaints from time to time.
They key is to think creatively and don't expect to be the first through in
a pileup. ( I never was back then)
Wire can be your friend!
Over the years I have used lots of "invisible" antennas using very small
wire (and yes, it breaks a few times a year), and always
had reasonable results.
I have lots of alumimum up today and have an acre of land with LOTS of
trees, so I still use wire for antennas. It's great and
I have fun, but I still had fun for 15 years or so with many smallish,
invisible or otherwise stealth-type antennas!~
7 3 de VE9AA, Mike
List Sponsored by AN Wireless: AN Wireless handles Rohn tower systems,
Trylon Titan towers, coax, hardline and more. Also check out our self
supporting towers up to 96 feet for under $1500!! http://www.anwireless.com
-----
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/towertalk
Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-towertalk@contesting.com
|