Hi Kevin,
I just drilled a couple of holes through the brick into the shack. They are behind a bush I planted so you cant see them. Fixing the holes in the brick and sheetrock is very easy to do if I need to. I put one in for HF and one for VHF/UHF j-pole also on the fence. Another interesting cheep antenna you might try is a 40M vertical loop. (height above ground has no impact on the gain of a vertical loop.) Run the top horizonal leg 20 or 30 feet just under the eve of the house. (make the horizonal legs long enough that the vertical legs only get to about a foot off the ground. Then drop the verticals to about a foot off the ground and starch the lower horizonal leg between them. Feed the rectangle on one of the lower corners. Feeding it in the corner will make it behave as aa vertical loop. You will need to either get a 4:1 balun to match the antenna or make a 75 ohm matching section. This kind of antenna is almost invisible and should work on 10, 15, 20 and 40M. You could make it work on 89M if you have the space (X2). I’m thinking about putting a loop up just to compare to my fence top fan antenna. If you make your own matching stub the total cost will still be just a few bucks and you can have some fun getting it to work. If you are going to play with homemade antennas or like changing things I’d invest in a good antenna analyzer. This will save lots of time running in and out of the shack testing and adjusting the antenna. Nick KE5QY From: BVARC <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Kevin L. Walton via BVARC Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2022 9:07 PM To: 'BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB' <[email protected]> Cc: Kevin L. Walton <[email protected]>; [email protected] Subject: Re: [BVARC] Antenna Experience KE5QY DE K5BTX – thank you for sharing your experiences! I am also limited by HOA external antenna restrictions and the foil-backed OSB radiant barrier all across our attic (newly built house). I have considered an end-fed wire/dipole stretched along the top of my 6-foot wooden fence, but I was concerned about the limited distance from the ground. I’ve got a 1/4 acre corner lot (all sides of my property are very visible to the streets) and a LOT of fence to use. I’m also considering a flag pole antenna… Do you or anyone else have experience with these? How do you get your coax out of the house? I’ve read about the barrel connectors in the window jams (not ideal), and I’m not so sure I want to drill through the stonework in the wall. Do you use any exterior grounding, i.e., ground rods tied back to your main house ground, or just string up the dipole on the fence and go? Thanks and 73s, Kevin / K5BTX Bryan, Texas From: BVARC <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > On Behalf Of Nick Creason KE5QY via BVARC Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2022 8:42 PM To: 'BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB' <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Cc: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: [BVARC] Antenna Experience Give this a try: I moved to Houston about two years ago and live on a normal size city lot with an HOA. My first attempt to get on the air with a stealth antenna was with a loop. (It is actually called the stealth loop). This turned out to be very expensive and very disappointing. It does have a very low noise floor, and will tune across everything from 40 meters through 6, but reception across the bands is very poor and signal reports (if anyone can even hear you) are not good. My next attempt would have been a dipole or vertical in the attic. My new house has a thermal barrier type roof on it so that idea ended with a short experiment using a 20M dipole. Finally, just for fun, I ran a 40M dipole just below the top of my 6 foot wood privacy fence. Connected it to my 100 watt rig and made contacts all over the 5 call area in the middle of the afternoon. Great coverage and signal reports. Early morning and night coverage is coast to coast. Next I added 20 and 10 meter legs to my dipole. I was able to slant them into inverted Vs because they are much shorter and run to a few inches from the ground. All three bands work from one end of the country to the other and the noise level is very good for being in a city environment. I’ve received very good signal reports across the entire country and have been checking into several 40M nets in the mornings. Next I tried FT8 just to see how far I could get. The antenna has made connections all over western Europe and the Pacific on 20 and 10M. (I don’t really consider FT* a valid contact, but it does give you an idea of how you’re getting out). You won’t win any DX contests with this type of antenna, but you will make lots of contacts and your HOA will never know you were there. And the cost is a little wire and a few insulators. (You don’t even have to take it down during storms) Low antennas are not a new idea. There is a lot of info in QST about Near Vertical Incident Skywave (NVIS) antennas. They might even work better than a ground mounted vertical with limited radials. Experimenting with antennas is one of the best parts of the hobby. A little wire and some rope goes a long way. 73s, Nick KE5QY From: BVARC <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > On Behalf Of Rick Hiller via BVARC Sent: Monday, October 24, 2022 7:29 PM To: BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Cc: Rick Hiller <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [BVARC] Antenna Experiance Hassan, Another way around the HOA is to use a tilt over base (DX Engineering and others). You use a base station type vertical antenna with ground radials and the tilt over base allows you to tilt the vertical down to ground level. As long as you have the space to lay it over you are good to go. Not sure the SA would fit this type of installation but a 4,5 or 6 BTV Hustler certainly would. Keep it down during the day and at night tilt it up. Painted appropriately you can't see it. Also, look thru some of the antenna books that are available. They are full of ideas for you to build and implement yourself. Thus lowering the cost of the high cost commercial antennas. Practical Antenna Handbook by Joe Carr. HF Antennas for all Locations -- Les Moxon. ARRL Antenna Compendiums Vol 1 thru 8. Vertical Antennas -- Bill Orr. Vertical Antenna Classics -- ARRL just to name a few. I see that you are in a gated community with all of the street names being "Quiet XXXX"....Holy Toledo! Your yard has plenty of room for a tilt over situation, as far as the satellite view can see. Also looks like you have a tile roof....how about running a loop around the perimeter of the roof with insulated wire and feed it with coax and a 4:1 balun with a tune in the shack. An Auto Tuner would be the best for quick band changes. Use as a receive antenna too. Lots of ways to go, if you think about it. GL ES 73....Rick -- W5RH On Mon, Oct 24, 2022 at 6:13 PM Hassan Thomas via BVARC <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: Thank you for the feedback. Curious on you Super antenna, how high does it sit off the ground? Thank you, Hassan On Mon, Oct 24, 2022 at 2:14 PM Michael Hooper KI5MWJ via BVARC <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: Definitely DX commander. Its not as portable as the Super Antenna. Super antenna does not perform near as well. I have both. I upgraded the radials for the Super Antenna and now it better but still lagging. Haven’t tried the SA for 2 meters yet. Sent from my iPhone On Oct 24, 2022, at 12:04 PM, Jeff Greer via BVARC <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: I'm in an HOA as well, but I've had the DX Commander clone up for a year or so now without anybody saying anything. I don't think anybody recognizes the 31-foot fiberglass pole sticking up out of my back yard as an antenna... What I really love about it is the ability to change bands at will. I can get all of the HF bands (ok, I can only get most of 80) with the built-in tuner on my radio. It makes jumping around really quick and convenient. Before (because I was brand new and in an HOA), I just had a 71' wire strung along the eave of my house and over to a tetherball pole by a fence. I used an external tuner for that, and it worked ok. The DX Commander performs a lot better for DX, though. _____ From: Hassan Thomas <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, October 24, 2022 1:44 PM To: Jeff Greer <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Cc: BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [BVARC] Antenna Experiance Great question. I would like to use this antenna as a base antenna (HOA restrictions), fief day, POTA and SHIT. Main use is for HF! Love the added be if it of hiring the 2m band too. On Mon, Oct 24, 2022 at 13:33 Jeff Greer <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: Oooh, antenna questions! What do you hope to use the antenna for? These both appear to be multiband and portable. Anthony and I are going to urge you to consider a DX Commander antenna: https://www.m0mcx.co.uk/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6wLPPAzu7iPDMaUeHoVvJw Anthony uses one for POTA; I use a homebrew copy at home, and put up another for JOTA the other day. _____ From: BVARC <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > on behalf of Hassan Thomas via BVARC <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, October 24, 2022 1:25 PM To: BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Cc: Hassan Thomas <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: [BVARC] Antenna Experiance Happy Monday, trying to decide on a multi band antenna. Contestant #1 is the Super Antenna <https://www.amazon.com/Super-Antenna-MP1LXMAX-80m-10m-Portable/dp/B07HMQ44W2> and contestant #2 is the buddie pole <https://www.buddipole.com/minibuddipole.html> . Curious if anyone has had experience with either antenna and would share their experience? Kindest Regards, Hassan Thomas - N5MTG -- Kindest Regards, Hassan Thomas ________________________________________________ Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club BVARC mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org Publicly available archives are available here: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ ________________________________________________ Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club BVARC mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org Publicly available archives are available here: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ -- Kindest Regards, Hassan Thomas ________________________________________________ Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club BVARC mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org Publicly available archives are available here: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ -- Rick Hiller e-mail: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Cell: 832-474-3713 Physical: 9031 Troulon Drive Houston, TX 77036
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