hey all, I have been searching through the forums as well as the web and have come across alot of ideas, but I would like some direct input as well... I live in a small 1 bedroom apartment on the second floor of a two story apartment building. I am looking for a simple HF antenna that I can build to get me on the air. It will need to be something that I can use without a tuner, and will be used with an Icom IC-725. I don't mind building and using separate antennas for each band. I do not have a balcony, and as of yet, no roof access. these will probably have to be something I can string up in a few minutes from my windows and take down when I am not using them.
Any ideas are greatly appreciated. criticism, if constructive is also appreciated. However!!! If you are simply going to tell me to put my favorite hobby on a back burner until I can get into a "proper" housing situation for a ham, do not bother to post.
Some sort of whip or hamstick out the window. Tie a sinker to some 22G wire and lower it out the window for a counterpoise.
I have thumb-tacked a dipole to the inside of the walls. Don't expect much but it's better than nothing.
I once lived in an apartment with "no roof access". I went up at night and ran a wire along the peak and ran it into my window. Could not see it from outside. Required a tuner.
If you have a PVC vent pipe from your drain to the roof...I'm thinking of some creative options.
I think that if I could get onto the roof, that would be a good option, it is a flat roof... but I don't know of a way to get up there... I was thinking of making a couple dipoles for the bands I plan to work and using some of those plastic spring clamps to hang it from the metal roof trim... one as far as I would reach out my bedroom window and on as far the other way as I can reach out the living room window (the are both on the same side of the building) and letting the ends of the dipole hang down, sort of inverted L's. then running coax from the center in the window to my radio. I don't have a tuner, and can't afford one unless I can find it really cheap... there is a hamfest close to me tomorrow morning, so I might go and see what I can find... don't have very much of a budget, but I might be able to snag something on the cheap...
I know that feeling. ask you tenant if you can get on the roof, you might get lucky and find a pole up there to make a inverted v or sloped. Keep in mind that tuners might not work as much (i have heard bad things about yaesu tunners) or as well as you would like, so make it as resonant as you can (the longer the better to for higher frequency's.
KD5HQN:
My experience is somewhat limited but what kind of tuners have you been looking at? MFJ makes a "Travel Tuner" that sells for about $100 new and a larger unit that goes for about $150. Neither is in the same league with some of the automatic tuners on the market but they seem to do the job. You can likely find one at a hamfest (or maybe on the "buy and sell" side of this forum). for quite a bit less.
Any ideas are greatly appreciated. criticism, if constructive is also appreciated. However!!! If you are simply going to tell me to put my favorite hobby on a back burner until I can get into a "proper" housing situation for a ham, do not bother to post.
Thank you!!
Jeremy
KD5HQN
Once in a similar situation in an apartment, I just ran a horizontal loop of wire around the top of the wall in the bedroom. Held up with thumbtacks. I'd guess it was a full wavelength somewhere around 20m. I did use a tuner to feed it.
It wasn't super, but I was able to make some contacts. I had to keep the power pretty low to avoid causing RFI.
I also used a loop tacked to the walls inside a bedroom. Just like OGW it worked ok and I could make contacts. I fed it with ladder line then a balun, then coax to a rig. If you play with the lengths of the loop and feed lines you can probably get close to a decent SWR somewhere but a tuner will really do the trick. If you're good with the smith chart you can figure out feed line lengths and/or use matching stubs.
thanks for the Ideas, I have been looking mostly at the MFJ tuners. autotuners are out of my price range, but I have several of MFJ's tuners on watch on ebay (yes, ebay) that have a few days left on them and are currently under or right around $100. depending on what my necessities for the next two weeks run me when I go shopping today, I may be able to swing one of them.
We appreciate your support.
simple homebrew HF antenna for an apartment
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