[CQ-Contest] Any experience contesting with small attic antennas?

[Scott Pederson]

Hi Vic,

First of all, welcome to Ham radio!  I think Dale is right - try them
and see, that's half the fun!

I have experimented with similar setups:

A couple of years ago I purchased a "Slinky" antenna off of Ebay.  One
day I did a 20m comparison between the slinky and a tuner (required), a
20m dipole in the attic, and a 20m Hamstick magmount stuck to the
minivan in the driveway.

The Slinky and the 20m dipole were very close in terms of performance,
(my AT-180 had a hard time tuning the slinky,) but the hamstick in the
driveway by FAR and away produced much better signal reports from both
DX and stateside from the Houston area.  I used a 2-position antenna
switch to compare the two. The attic was above a two-story brick house,
and there was a lot of A/C duct-work, A/C units, hot water heater, etc.
that was surely interfering somewhat.

Hope this information helps!

Scott - ki5dr


--- Dale L Martin <kg5u at hal-pc.org> wrote:
> 
> > All:
> > Hello, I am new to contesting, and relatively new to Amateur Radio
> (abt
> > 1.5 yrs).  I live in a townhouse with the usual antenna
> restrictions, so
> > all my operating experience has involved experiments with a wide
> variety
> > of antennas in my attic.  I entered the CQWW CW contest in the QRP
> > category and had a great time, and found out where I need
> improvements.
> > Just need to finish putting the log into Cabrillo format.  I would
> be
> > interested in some offline email discussions with anyone who
> contests
> > under similar antenna restrictions.  Thanks.
> >
> > Vic
> > KG4HTT
> 
> Hi, Vic.
> 
> You are really making it hard on yourself, aren't you?  :-)
> 
> I used to own a house in a subdivision that had deed restrictions
> against
> antennas ("no outside antennas are permitted.").
> 
> I had five dipoles in the attic.  The 40m dipole was a long Z, while
> 20, 15
> and the two 10's were straight dipoles.  I used a heath remote coax
> switch
> to handle the antenna switching.
> 
> The two 10's were about ten feet apart and at right angles to each
> other:
> one broadside e-w; the other n-s.  They worked like champs.
> 
> I worked a 9V1 on 40m one afternoon longpath.  Another time in a
> contest, I
> found a clear spot on the low end of 15m CW and called CQ.  JT0WA
> called me.
> Unexpected things happened with that system.
> 
> I'd say go for it and have fun.  If you can, crank it up to 100w to
> lower
> the bar a bit for you.  QRP and indoor antennas make for very
> frustrating
> operating.
> 
> 73 & HNY
> 
> dale, kg5u
> 
> 
> --
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> 


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