Apartment/Balcony Antenna

[iceman78]

I live in an apartment (1st fl). Obviously an A-99 or anything like that is out of the question.
I have been reading up on Dipoles but I can't put one up outside or across my living room - wife will freak.
A local here offered me what he called an apartment (or balcony) antenna for free.
Was wondering if anyone had any feedback on this type of antenna. I also have my old k-40 mag mount.
Would that be anygood to use indoors or maybe behind a bush outside sitting in a baking sheet (grounding the radio to ground screw in electric recepticle).

 

[hookedon6]

if it's free,...... it's for me

 

[W5LZ]

iceman78,
Take the free antenna and at least try it. Depending on what the thing is, it's probably going to out perform that K-40 on a pie plate under a bush. Which wouldn't be saying much, no matter what antenna is on a pie plat under a bush . Just for grins, try that mag-mount on the side of your refrigerator, or on top. Best in the world? Uh, no, but better than nothing. Prepare to do some running if the wife doesn't like it, a K-40 makes a terrible torture instrument, they used to use them in them torture chambers, you know.
I think you'll find that "better than nuthin" is about as good as it gets with any indoor antenna...
- 'Doc


(All puns intended, it's only funny is it happens to someone else, and decorating something makes it a little more acceptable to a female (with replaceable chocolate!))

 

[Beetle]

"Sitting on a baking sheet" isn't going to provide anything remotely like a decent ground plane for any magmounted CB antenna, unless you have a baking sheet that's 18 feet in diameter with the antenna at the center. Quarter wave radials would definitely help, but just a baking sheet is barely better than nothing. It helps for VHF/UHF, but far too small on HF.

 

[Squints]

heres my balcony antenna, i went with a 7 ft tall skipshooter fiberglass wire wound with a tunable tip that had to be cut off for a more refined tune on a specific frequency

 

[ForestRunner98]

View attachment 59053heres my balcony antenna, i went with a 7 ft tall skipshooter fiberglass wire wound with a tunable tip that had to be cut off for a more refined tune on a specific frequency

Cool!! How well does it perform?

 

[Eldorado828]

View attachment 59053heres my balcony antenna, i went with a 7 ft tall skipshooter fiberglass wire wound with a tunable tip that had to be cut off for a more refined tune on a specific frequency

Heck yeah, that's great! It's amazing what us radio heads come up with to get on the air isn't!

Height is at your advantage so that's a plus.

Like @ForestRunner98 , I'm curious about performance too

 

[whiteastro]

I know a guy in another forum that runs a Sirio Balcony antenna and talks skip with it but he is in Texas and I think around Austin so I don't know if he is a Flat Lander or not. But he is quit a radio freak !

 

[Eldorado828]

@codeman here runs a sirio boomerang or balcony antenna and has reported great results with his. He's made many Dx contacts if I'm remembering correctly.

 

[codeman]

I use a Sirio Boomerang. It work pretty well for my situation. I have made hundreds of contacts with it. Mostly sideband but AM as well running up to about 500 watts through it. I have talked all over the good Ole USA and as far as Australia with it.

It won't get out or receive like a imax 2000 but it let's me play radio. Hopefully soon I will get a real antenna up once I sell my townhouse and figure out my next move as far as a place to live.