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Multiband antennas for apartments?
- Thread starter dw44vh
- Start date
Outdoors on a balcony. Have aluminum railings. Balcony has roof. Balcony is approx. 8'x8'. Attic mount is not possible. 6m - 80m would like more bands, but understand the limitations. 250 watt is fine as I do not have an external amplifier. Coax (RG-8).
Excellent! You have many options, money will ultimately dictate the most likely solution as well as how permanent you would like to make the installation. Hopefully you are on one of the upper levels, you could start with some simple wire antennas and a tuner. The balcony will be your ground and you will most likely want to try and drop some type of counterpoise wire off the ground side of whatever mount you eventually attach to the balcony. A "Screwdriver" type mobile antenna with a nice counterpoise would fit in the desired space and give the band coverage you're looking for in a single remote controllable unit.
If you buy a tuner that is capable of tuning open wire feed line you can utilize a simple wire antenna and end up with a much more efficient radiator but you will need to maually tune for each band. There are some very nice half wave verticals that are available commercially but they are expensive and are usually 22 feet long or more but require nor radials or counterpoise.
The Cushcraft R6000 is only 19 feet long
A 10 foot "Screwdriver" antenna (not automatic)
Motorized "Screwdriver" antenna
Open Wire Feeder multi-band limited space antennas
cockpitbob
NES Member
Or for $100 you could get started with one of these from MFJ. For anything you are considering, check the reviews on eham.net.
Remember you get what you pay for, and it's actually better to spend a little too much than a little too little. If you spend to much you get something nicer than what you needed. If you spend too little you might waste all your money getting something that won't do the job.
Remember you get what you pay for, and it's actually better to spend a little too much than a little too little. If you spend to much you get something nicer than what you needed. If you spend too little you might waste all your money getting something that won't do the job.
And the difference between that one and the one in my second link is................$29, I own both and the $99 one fails miserably, the $129 one works pretty well.
cockpitbob
NES Member
Good point. I saw "screwdriver" and didn't bother opening the link.
Thanks for the replies. Cushcraft R 6000 is not possible, would not be allowed. Wish it was. I live on 2nd floor with no apt. above me. Need to be discrete. Was looking at the manually adjustable screwdrivers from MFJ, but would need to go outside to adjust to change bands. Looking at MFJ Big Ear and Big Stick. Looking at Tarheel II screwdrivers.
Tarheel will work really good as long as you have a solid ground plane and they are pricey.
Have you checked out buddipole at all? They have a lot of options including a clamp mount that sounds like it might work for your situation. It will be pretty solid from 6-20 but 40 will be tough and 80 may be impossible.
Yes I have looked at the BuddiPole / Stick. I found out about MFJ antennas after doing a search to see else was available. Also found SuperAntenna. Think BuddiPole is easier to set up though. Also MFJ-1622, MFJ-1625, MFJ-1624 and MFJ-65. I need to look into the reviews of each.
Upon further research, MFJ has Loop antennas and tuners. I am able to make my own loop antennas. Their antennas tuner model MFJ-936B.I realize I would need to make separate lops for the bands. Could use a rotary switch or others to switch bands. Any thoughts on this?
cockpitbob
NES Member
There's a lot to be said for magnetic loop antennas when space restricted. To tune them there is usually just a variable capacitor across the gap where the ends meet. One thing to remember is the voltages across the gap are crazy high: over a thousand even at QRP power levels.
Here's a link to a guy who's getting his feet wet in mag loop antennas and writing about it. Web around a bit and you'll find that they are simple to make and the only expensive part is the very high voltage variable capacitor. You won't need several diameter loops, just the variable cap. Many people put gear-head motors on the capacitor and just have a center-off rocker switch at the shack to turn the cap. It's manual tuning, but you don't have to get up.
Here's a link to a guy who's getting his feet wet in mag loop antennas and writing about it. Web around a bit and you'll find that they are simple to make and the only expensive part is the very high voltage variable capacitor. You won't need several diameter loops, just the variable cap. Many people put gear-head motors on the capacitor and just have a center-off rocker switch at the shack to turn the cap. It's manual tuning, but you don't have to get up.
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