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

[Dennis McAlpine]

Hi Vic
Welcome to the wonderful, sometimes weird world of contesting.  As others
have said, when in doubt, try it.  It might work better than you think.

I lived in the middle of NYC for over 20 years and managed to work over 300
countries.  I was lucky though because I could run an inverted vee off of
the water tower.  You would be surprised how invisible thin wire can be.
Now I live in Scarsdale and have a Buternut vertical on the back porch and
it does very well for a little antenna.  They  can be hid fairly well also.
One friend of mine, N2UN, has done quite well in NYC by puttting a vertical
out on his patio at night.  I know someone else who did well for years using
a fishing rod and just dropping a line out the window at night.  Antenna
tuners help in all cases.  Bottom line, try it - you might be surprised at
how much it can work.  Go for the 100 watts tho.
GL & 73.
See you in the contests.

Dennis K2SX
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Pederson" <spederson at yahoo.com>
To: "Dale L Martin" <kg5u at hal-pc.org>; "CQ Contest Reflector"
<cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2001 8:24 PM
Subject: RE: [CQ-Contest] Any experience contesting with small attic
antennas?


>
> 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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