Ham living in a retirement home looking to get on 10 meters.

[Alan Blackmon]

A ham in a home with Technician license has been able to get permission to install his 2 meter antenna on the building. I have not seen his station yet so I don't know the details yet. I will be going over this week to visit with him and see what could be done to add 10 meters to his station. I know the club I am with had some involvement in putting up his vhf/uhf antenna and getting his radio connected. I was not involved with that project. I will be bringing this to the club as a new project.

I am coming here to ask if anyone has done a 10 meter station in a retirement home or perhaps an apartment building and how you got it done? Of course we will seek additional permissions for this expansion of antennas. He did say he still drives and owns a vehicle. I did say this may present him with a solution to put in a mobil station in the vehicle. He does drive this vehicle to run errands and such.

Thanks everyone. 73 AB7XX

 

[Riverman]

Pricey, but a magnetic loop like an Alexloop or Chameleon F Loop in the person’s room would be an option. Or perhaps your club could build him one. And if the gentleman upgrades to General, the loops give him access to 10-40 Meters.

 

[Alan Blackmon]

I have built a quarter wave antenna that I will hang from the tree just outside his room. I went over to visit him today and saw his set up. He has a window bulkhead that has coax pass through. One is used for his 2 meter antenna which is just outside his room. It is mounted on a mast 2 feet high. The antenna is probably a diamond antenna for 2 meters and 70 cm. He painted it and did some other stealth mods on it so it is not so obvious sitting next to the building.

The antenna I built is just an insulated wire for the vertical elements and two radials. It will hang from any handy branch and the radials will be loosely tied or wound around branches. The distance from the feed point to the exterior wall will be approximately 10 feet. I figure 25ish feet of RG8X will get to the window bulk head unit.

 

[dxter]

A simple half wave dipole should work just fine.
16.42 foot is the length if you've got two mounting points.

 

[Holydvr]

He have a 10m radio?

 

[Alan Blackmon]

He have a 10m radio?

Not at this point. He did say that would be on his shopping list. I may have a radio to loan him for a bit while he looks for one.

 

[Alan Blackmon]

A simple half wave dipole should work just fine.
16.42 foot is the length if you've got two mounting points.

We looked at this option. The layout of the building would have been very good to install one but he did nix the idea. He leaned to getting a really stealth vertical up in the tree outside his window.

 

[Holydvr]

I have an htx-10 that I would donate.

 

[Holydvr]

I have an htx-100 as well, but the squelch pot went the way of the Buffalo.

 

[W4KVW]

I have an htx-10 that I would donate.

I have owned both the HTX-10 & HTX-100 & I much prefered the HTX-10 since I don't do CW at all.The HTX-10 is a great & Legal 10 meter radio & it will operate Split so
he may also work 10 meter repeaters.

SIX-SHOOTER
W4KVW
WRMX520

 

[AudioShockwav]

I have owned both the HTX-10 & HTX-100 & I much prefered the HTX-10 since I don't do CW at all.The HTX-10 is a great & Legal 10 meter radio & it will operate Split so
he may also work 10 meter repeaters.

SIX-SHOOTER
W4KVW
WRMX520

I remember when you could get the htx 10 for $60 new in the wrapper at the shack when they closed out.
That was the final gasp of breath from radio shack and a real 10 meter radio.

73
Jeff

 

[W4KVW]

I remember when you could get the htx 10 for $60 new in the wrapper at the shack when they closed out.
That was the final gasp of breath from radio shack and a real 10 meter radio.

73
Jeff

I see them pretty often at Hamfest for $75 to $100 in very good condition with the original box. It's a great deal for a LEGAL 10 meter mono band radio that is very reliable & easy to operate.

73,
Clayton
W4KVW

 

[Alan Blackmon]

An update.

First of all thank you for the donation offers. I will get in touch with the person and see what he would like to do? There is a Ham swap meet coming up where he is planning to go. Anyway I will let him know.

I have built the antenna. It is very simple. A BNC to wire connector was used. One side goes to ground. That will be the coax shield to radial. The center of coax will connect to the vertical element. Insulated wire will be used for vertical element and radials. The BNC adaptor was installed inside a plastic piece which I will paint to match the tree color. I have tested the build in a tree I have here in my yard. It worked out very well with low SWR from 28.000 to 28.500. I built it to focus on the part of the band he could use as a Technician.

When it isn't so dang cold locally I will be hanging this assembly in the tree. I am hoping the wire will be unseen long enough for leaves to grow and hide the antenna. I will do a photo of the antenna in tree when I get it into place.

Alan

 

[Alan Blackmon]

I called my friend in the home today to see how he is doing. I wanted to inform him of my build progress. He has obtained permission to put the antenna up which will make things so much simpler for me while installing it. I let him know that I need to have warmer days before I want to do the job.

Included is a photo of the tree I will be installing the quarter wave vertical in. His window is the one just left of the tree. This is going to be a easy install.

 

[Alan Blackmon]

The antenna is up. Photo here is the feed point at about 15 feet hight. Two radials droop down to about 8 feet high on the ends. SWR was at 1.12:1 at 28.4. SWR at 28.000 was at 1.5:1. This spring when the tree blossoms with new leaves the antenna will become invisible. He has his eye on the ICOM IC7300. He is going to sell a firearm he owns and can no longer get out and use to fund the new radio. I figured everyone would like to see how the project turned out.