[TowerTalk] apartment living

William Hein william.hein at mac.com
Wed Apr 25 15:36:35 EDT 2007


I have a nice contest station in VT (Scott W4PA piloted the station to #1 SO in the US a few years ago in the CQ WW contest) but I now spend most of my time living and working in NYC (apartment in Long Island City, Queens, to be precise).

My apartment is on the 30th floor of a building on the east bank of the East River (directly across the river from the UN in Manhattan) with floor-to-ceiling windows to the south and west with wide-open views.  I figured I could have some fun operating QRP from the apartment when not back in VT as the view is spectular and I thought, wrongly, good for some fun on the radio.  Unfortunately short wave operation seems impossible with indoor antennas here, even when an antenna is pressed to the glass.  All SW bands completely dead all the time.  I can pick up VHF signals OK.

Am I living in a big Farady Cage?  Any suggestions?  Hanging antennas out the window not a viable option.  The building is a modern concrete and rebar box with a lot of glass.  I am on the next-to-the-top floor.

I am working on remoting my VT station but I have latency issues with the satellite Internet link on the VT side.

73,
Bill NT1Y/2

PS:  Apologies if this is off-topic for TowerTalk.  Maybe think of my apartment building as a big tower?



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