[TowerTalk] Dorm room antenna?

[Kelly Johnson]

I would think that a Buddipole would be your best bet.


On Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 11:50 AM, Jim Lux <jimlux at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>From: bill rubin <brubin2010 at gmail.com>
>>Sent: Oct 27, 2008 7:50 AM
>>To: Greg Davis <n3zl.radio at gmail.com>
>>Cc: towertalk at contesting.com
>>Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Dorm room antenna?
>>
>> Use the cold water pipe from the bathroom if you can for a ground.
>>73 Bill
>
> I don't know about Clemson, but at UCLA in the 70s, the bathroom was down the hall, so running a wire to it wouldn't be all that great.
>
> And, anyway, if you hook up to the water pipe or the greenwire ground, you're just asking for RFI complaints (or your received signal will be full of RFI from others.. or both).
>
> The restriction of no tuner makes life pretty complex.
>
> You might wander over to the HFPACK group on Yahoo.  Your problems are much like those faced by folks doing portable operations.
>
> One approach is to do the "pair of mobile whips" scheme as a dipole.
> Another is the "mobile whip on the window ledge sticking out" working against an untuned counterpoise of a bunch of wires hanging down the outside the building or strung to your neighbor's room.
>
> A wire suspended from an inexpensive collapsible fishing pole is another idea. You can adjust the wire length for tuning. Cabelas sells 20 foot "panfish poles" for <$20 that collapse to <4' in seconds.
>
> So, something like a wire hanging down the outside of the building, and another wire sticking straight out, perhaps with a bit hanging down off the end (for tuning) might work pretty well.  Watch out for problems with HV at the end of your hanging counterpoise.
>
>
> Watch out for RF exposure limits!  This isn't a situation covered by the "safe harbor" tables for dipoles etc, in OET Bulletin 65.  You'll need to do some real analysis work to be legally compliant.
>
>
>>
>>On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 6:35 PM, Greg Davis <n3zl.radio at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello:
>>>
>>> adjusted to college life. My room is on the third floor of the dorm,
>>> so I have a bit of room to work with. At first I was thinking about
>>> trying an end fed sloper to a tree about 30 feet diagonally out from
>>> my window, but I am not sure how well that would work out since I
>>> don't have anything to ground it to up here.
>>>
>>> I am wondering if anyone could give me any suggestions on an ultra
>>> simple antenna (no matchboxes, etc. required hopefully - directly fed
>>> with just a few feet of coax to the radio without a tuner would be
>>> fantastic) that I could quickly deploy from out of my third floor
>>> window, ideally end-fed. I would like to work 40M and 20M mainly. I
>>> know that's a lot to ask!
>>>
>
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