Apt antenna

[Chong]

I live in an apartment and am not allowed to have an outdoor antenna. I can have an indoor antenna but would like to use my 250 amp. I put out a base I own but don't really like to do that. Any suggestions for my situation? My 102" whip in a bush was caught so that's out of the question. Well please help me find a solution for my problem thanks.
Chong_CDX199

 

[W5LZ]

The quick-n-dirty answer is 'Don't bother.'. Expect problems from running power with any kind of 'appartment' antenna. Those problems can run anywhere from 'fuzzy' TV to neighbors banging on your door.
One solution is wait till dark and hang an antenna out a window. It won't be 'good' in almost any aspect, but it's a possibility. Or, run a feed line out the window to your vehicle's antenna. Another one of 'those' kinda solutions...
- 'Doc

 

[Marconi]

199, 'Doc is right again. Just the simple fact of having and RF generator close to your family, like inside of your apartment is probably not a good idea. At least in your auto you are somewhat shielded from this energy by the auto. Plus in your auto you can maybe find a local spot to transmit where you won't cause problems for your neighbors and maybe even find a hot spot to really improve your get out. Apartment living and CB are not generally good partners since you cannot get your antenna outside and up higher than the floor you live on, to say nothing about the RF causing RI problems thru thin walls and into delicate circuits in modern electronic devices in households.

 

[Switch Kit]

Damned filthy rotten cb radio !!! )-: IM in a Condo and there's no damned way !! I think about it and it gives me a damned headach !! It's not fair i say !!! It's just not fair !! but you know what ? IM not 25 years old anymore and the thought of trying to make everybody happy in the neighbor hood with chokes here and there and all the rest of the pain in the a$$ that tvi /bleed over can and will bring ......I surely do not miss that part of my hobby anymore. I understand the thrill there chong ,but do yourself a favor and don't even give it a second thought dude

 

[DTB Radio]

There was a fellow locally here who had the same issue. He ended up taking a Wilson 1000 and a big peice of sheet metal, laying the sheet on the ground, and sticking the 1000 on that. It actually worked quite well, and he was getting un-amplified ranges of 15 to 20 miles or more. Not sure how well that would work for you, but its worth a thought. In my own case, I once had a similar problem. I used a Firestick indoor base antenna. It was basically a 5' firestick mobile with a 4-raial ground-plane setup as a mount. It worked reasonably well, but certainly didn't get much more than local range. I would never have tried to run any real power through it, though, because of it being close to my TV's, etc. I actually fried a TV using only about 6 watts of output. I was keyed up at the same time I used my remote to turn on my TV, and the TV went poof. I had it repaired, but it was enough to make me go out and buy a house so I could run an outside antenna.

 

[freecell]

before you give up altogether it would be nice if you could tell us something about your apartment. are you on the ground floor? do you have a wood fence? the bottom line is that your location and circumstances need to first be evaluated to determine whether or not any applicable solutions exist. you have given us very little to go on.

 

[Moleculo]

It's quite possible to make an indoor wire dipole or a loop antenna. If you're a ssb'er, you can do reasonably well barefoot. I wouldn't give up on the idea, but I would seriously consider not running the amp.

 

[freecell]

the amplifier is also doable. limit the output to less than 150W PEP for best results.