Ham Talk Live! Episode 188 - Stealth Antennas and HOAs

Renegotiate contract.

 

It's all about the art of the deal...the give and take of negotiation and compromise...and through it all I've learned the most essential secret to a long, prosperous and happy existence: "Happy wife, happy life." AKA..."Keep your antennas out of my face and you can play radio...I'll even bring you sammiches during contests"

 

Awesome, Sammiches !

 

For about 8 years I lived in a "townhome", essentially a small wooden house built over a garage and with an unfinished attic, attached on two sides to other similar structures. No yard at all. At the time I bought it I was inactive hammy-wise.

After reading stories of clandestine communications from Nazi-occupied territories, I became interested in radio again, got relicensed, and commenced low-power CW operations with a random loop of wire tacked to the underside of the roof. Running only 5 to 20 watts, and contending with an eastern wall of aluminum foil, I worked uncounted numbers of domestic stations and easily worked westward over the Rockies into Asia. The highlight were two separate 20-meter contacts with a station in Finland while using a Ramsey two-watt transmitter and its matching receiver. He was as excited as I was. (His QSL card was decorated with cartoon ladybugs...can't remember the call tho!)

The point of the game was to operate as much as possible while avoiding "enemy" snooping. I also ran two-meter packet radio to a J-pole suspended on a string from a nail in a crossbeam. (Even made a contact with the ISS to leave a msg.) All this was done from about 1988 into the mid-90s with whatever propagation was happening at the time.

Think of it as a ham radio "war game."

 

Well said

G3SEA/KH6

 

The laws recently changed in Texas prohibiting HOA's from disallowing flagpoles in back yards and you can now legally erect a 24 ft flagpole irrespective on waht the HIOA rules may be. I did this and used 'safety guys' to make sure the falgpole doesn't fall on any citizens. The safety guys were a QSO King end fed long wire which works just fine !

 

I've built my own antennas for several years. Recently I moved to a smaller home on a small lot & I had to do something along the lines of a smaller "footprint". I didn't want to "reinvent the wheel" so I settled on an Ultimax end-fed wire antenna. I am pleased as I only had to launch lead weight on a fishing line with a sling-shot & erect the wire. I located the antenna's wire in a clear area in the woods behind my house and I can now operate 80 meters through 6 meters (actually through 10 meters since I don't have a radio to operate on 6). I've worked my share of DX and many state-side stations with whom I enjoy rag-chewing. 73, Ken - KG4LLQ

 

Too much HOA Nonsense out there. Now, they are all hot and bothered about the implications of "THERAPY" Pets! I kid you not!
The HOA Man is waaaay out of control, and it's time to take him OUT of the decesion making loop when it comes to Ham antennas! Entirely.
Entirely! No More HOA Appeasement.
73 DE W8LV BILL

 

Wish ARRL shared your attitude.

 

I'm in a recently completed home in a nearly-finished development where I'm using an Ultimax 100 antenna with 49' of black 14 AWG wire, strung up between a couple of young trees. The wire runs about eleven feet up the trunk of one tree and then across between the two trees, about 10' off the ground, making what one might call an inverted "L". If I stand on the closest nearby street with a good view of my back yard, I find it quite impossible to see the wire, try as I may. In fact, the first time I went out to look for my antenna from that street, I thought it must have fallen down while I was walking out to look for it. Nope, it's still up. Works quite well, and so far nobody is the wiser.

 

Hear this so many times. “I’m in an HOA....what do I do for antennas?”.....Well!! Read first, buy second. I’m in a NJ HOA and I was “well aware” of what I was getting into!! Ken.

 

"...reading stories of clandestine communications from Nazi-occupied territories..."

haha! I ABSOLUTELY understand the comparison and have operated clandestine all over the world. Los Angeles was the toughest.

 

I enjoy being a snowbird and operating at my daughters home when in the south. However it is not easy to have an effective 40/80 meter antenna in a HOA. I first tried a 40/80 meter dipole atop her 6' high wood privacy fence (worked poorly to un-useable after a rain), this year I brought a 30' collapsible mast and put up a 40 meter inverted V (works fair to good) and no one has complained yet as it is mostly hidden in the trees.

My daughter and her husband were in the military in California and being reassigned to Georgia. I was given power of attorney to find and buy them a home in the area. It took me 14 days of looking to find what they wanted in a home that was not also in a HOA or restrictive community. Two years later, they were reassigned again and sold their home. Once sold, the military withdrew her re-assignment and she had to rent an apartment until she could find a house in the area she could afford. It is possible but very difficult to find a decent non-HOA home in a growing military town on short notice. She wound up in a brand new development (without dad's help) with an HOA solely controlled by the builder (no resident home owners on the board yet after 2 years).

 

Have you seen these two YouTube videos referencing HOA's and Amateur Radio Antennas?

Video #1 click HERE

Video #2 click HERE

 

While some will say that comparisons to Nazis are politically incorrect or violate Godwin's Law, many HOA board members are in fact quite similar to Seinfeld's "Soup Nazi" (for which the actor got an Emmy nomination; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soup_Nazi).

"No antennas for you!"