[TenTec] Apartment antenna help

[Barry LaZar]

Al,
     An interesting problem you have. Let suggest that since you have the maintenance guy willing to help try a variant of the sky loop in the antenna handbook. It will be a loop of wire the you rum along the edge of the roof; I assume that the 3rd floor is the top floor. This will make you loop at least 30-40 feet, or better above ground and on the outside of the building. If you use insulated wire, about 14 gauge colored black, it will be hard to see and fairly efficient. The antenna can be held in place by staples which will not effect its operation. The loop can be fed with coax cable to a window where a plastic insert with a connector is mounted; if the run is very short, the coax could be LM-240, RG-8X, or equal. If the run is moderate or longer, use LM-400, 9913, or equal. These will keep the loses down. Make sure you have a RF choke at the connecter coming into the apartment. You can use any of your favorite tuners. This will work pretty well.


73,
Barry
K3NDM 


>From: Al Gulseth <wb5jnc at gulseth.net>
>Date: Mon Mar 27 07:53:11 CST 2006
>To: tentec at contesting.com
>Subject: [TenTec] Apartment antenna help

>Greetings all,
>
>I'd like some "brainstorming" help on an antenna for my dad. He is on the 
>third floor of an assisted living apartment facility, and we've been trying 
>to figure out if we can get him on the air from there (even on a limited 
>basis). Dad has been trying some indoor antenna setups (such as the Hamstick 
>type dipole arrangements) but apparently to no avail. I suspect this has to 
>do with the construction of the building (i.e. iron frame etc.)
>
>I have talked to the head of the maintenance department at the facility and he 
>seems to be willing to work with me on an antenna, but obviously it needs to 
>be as unobtrusive as possible as well as require as little alteration to the 
>building as possible. Since dad primarily like to operate 40/30/20M, what I 
>am currently thinking as a solution is a 22' wire (either horizontal or 
>vertical) attached to the outside of the building with a bead of clear 
>caulking or RTV. I would need to get this through a window, so I am 
>envisioning using a short piece of a "sandwich" of 1/2" - 3/4" wide thin 
>copper strip/flashing with thick plastic tape on either side so it can 
>(hopefully) be formed so that the window can be closed with it in place. I 
>realize that there would probably be some coupling to the window/frame as it 
>is aluminum. The 22' length mentioned is chosen as I am of the impression 
>that it is a good compromise length that is easy to load on 20-40M. This 
>would be balanced with a 22' counterpoise along the baseboard inside and fed 
>via an SCG (237?) autotuner placed where the antenna comes in through the 
>window. (Hope I'm making sense here with all this....) Another possibility I 
>have considered would be something similar to the B&W/MFJ apartment antenna 
>but with the matching network relocated to inside the building (again 
>possibly using the SGC autotuner along with the requisite counterpoise).
>
>What is the possibility of this actually working (obviously on a rather 
>limited basis)? Any comments or suggestions? BTW this _is_ Ten-Tec related as 
>dad would be using this with his Delta (probably at quasi-QRP levels of 20W 
>or less due to the possibility of TVI etc.)
>
>-- 
>TNX/73, Al
>
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