Cool video! When I was in college top floor of the apartments they had a flat roof with a metal flange that was like a big rectangle around the top of the roof and not grounded. Stranded insulated 14 gauge wire went to a simple alligator clip and into the tuner as a long wire. I could reach it from our balcony. 100 watts and a Ten Tec Omni B and it was hottest on 10 MHz and maybe a half wave above ground. Worked DX well! I also loaded up our un-grounded pool deck screen enclosure aluminum cage with some limited success. Wondering if my garage door that is unhooked from the opener might be a match for my tuner on the Xiegu G90? Perhaps be ready for a hurricane? Love the spirit of experimenting! If it’s a conductor try to load it up!
I do wonder how well he would have done for passing messages with CW or even (gasp) SSB? This wasn't even a FT* setup, but WINLINK - I get that this mode seems to be Julin's preferred mode of operating...but it also seems to be overly constrained. (shrug) OTOH - When I think of clandestine radio station what comes to mind is loading up a GRC-109 to the downspout of the Hotel International in Vientiane Laos.....real old school stuff. No doubt shows my age as well.
I also haven't heard a single QSO in video, so the title is really deceiving. But in fact, I don’t see any problems making a couple of QSO with at least a neighboring room, even if you use any metal object that you find there and use it as an antenna. And this also could be fun.
I forgot to mention I was thinking about loading up the fireplace flu since it seems to be all metal. Wonder if anybody’s tried that yet? I’m not sure if it’s grounded or not.
My trusty Icom AH-4 auto-tuner for unbalanced end fed wire (tunes anything from 10 to 5000 ohms impedance) has matched... ...a tennis court fence wire, a farm gate, barbed wire cattle fence, house gutter, abandoned telegraph overhead wire, concrete steel reinforcing fabric, yaght guard rail and a defunct house copper wire telephone line... fun fun fun!
I am close friends with a guy who lives on the other coast of Florida from me (WI4E).... He uses the downspout. He's the maintenance guy for his highrise. As such, he was able to isolate the gutter system in two "elements". I've been down since myself, so no QSO directly (yet), but from what he told me, it kicks booty on 40 and 80M, but can still use it through his tuner on 20M. BTW, I looked into doing that here with mine, but it's all grounded.
Thank you for a nice and informative video on the possibilities and potential of an HF Data station setup while portable!
Way back in 1989-1995 I worked for the state of Vermont at one of these rest stops and the wood furnace had all metal heating ductwork. After a fire was built and heated the building, I could load up that ductwork and work 80-10 meters. It acted like a long wire antenna. people were amazed of the signal output and then I'd tell them what my antenna is. During warmer weather, I had a hard time trying to get it to load on 80 and 40. but mostly it would work fairly well from 40-10 meters.
Why do you think the warm weather had anything to do with being able to load up the fireplace flue? Just wondering in case I dry it. Thanks for the ideas.
We have POTA, SOTA, IOTA…What should we call a new movement to use as follows?: “anything that conducts as an antenna besides a traditional antenna…on the air”. Too long of an acronym ATCAAABATA…OTA seems too long & hard to say on SSB and might be confusing on CW. Any suggestions from the Zed family and we’ll fire up anything from the mail box, bed springs to the neighbor’s gutter to make a multi element array or if you are in the south your neighbor’s junk car up on blocks with the weeds growing around it or their chicken coop or outhouse! Serious creative replies please as we need to get this on the air before April fools day! John
I feel like RMOOTA (random metal objects on the air) is succinct enough without losing the humor. 73, KL4LJ
