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Base Looking for an unobtrusive base station antenna
- Thread starter mroneeyedboh
- Start date
Yeah, I mean Id like to be able to talk DX, local etc... What would be limiting me? The close trees or the fact that I want a smaller antenna? Whats considered a tall antenna? And is it measured off of the ground or the top of the shed?
it's the word "unobtrusive" that is limiting you.
want to hide your antenna? It's not going to work very well.
want a small invisible antenna? It's not going to work very well.
want to mount it low to the ground? It's not going to work very well.
HOWEVER! the nature of DX signals and the way the ionosphere bounces them around means that when skip conditions are favorable, you will hear stations coming in to your radio even with a sub-par antenna. you will even be able to talk to some of them sometimes.
so, you will still get the occasional DX, but you may find yourself frustrated trying to get them to come back to you due to all the other more powerful stations in your area who are also trying to talk to that same DX station.
a good base station antenna will be around 18-22 feet long, and should be mounted 36+ feet above the ground to the base of the antenna.
yes, it will work much better at 72 feet to the base of the antenna, and yes, it will still work if its only 18 feet to the base of the antenna.
If i had a big metal shed with a metal roof, i would buy a V 5/8 wave antenna, a 30 foot push up pole, and a three foot tripod.
I would mount the tripod right in the middle of the metal roof and use UV resistant guy ropes (made of dacron) to guy it in two places.
then i would run heavy gauge solid copper wire from the base of the push up pole out to each of the four corners of the shed, and down to an 8 foot ground rod for each wire run.
then i would run the heavy gauge wire around the base of the shed attaching all ground rods together, and tie that run in with the AC mains ground coming in to the shed.
Run the coax through a real lightning arrestor before it comes into the shed, and tie that lightning arrestor to your ground system.
yes, it's complicated, and can be expensive, but this should give you a guide for all the compromises you might have to make in your particular installation.
no matter what, you need to research about grounding and lightning protection.
hope this helps,
LC
want to hide your antenna? It's not going to work very well.
want a small invisible antenna? It's not going to work very well.
want to mount it low to the ground? It's not going to work very well.
HOWEVER! the nature of DX signals and the way the ionosphere bounces them around means that when skip conditions are favorable, you will hear stations coming in to your radio even with a sub-par antenna. you will even be able to talk to some of them sometimes.
so, you will still get the occasional DX, but you may find yourself frustrated trying to get them to come back to you due to all the other more powerful stations in your area who are also trying to talk to that same DX station.
a good base station antenna will be around 18-22 feet long, and should be mounted 36+ feet above the ground to the base of the antenna.
yes, it will work much better at 72 feet to the base of the antenna, and yes, it will still work if its only 18 feet to the base of the antenna.
If i had a big metal shed with a metal roof, i would buy a V 5/8 wave antenna, a 30 foot push up pole, and a three foot tripod.
I would mount the tripod right in the middle of the metal roof and use UV resistant guy ropes (made of dacron) to guy it in two places.
then i would run heavy gauge solid copper wire from the base of the push up pole out to each of the four corners of the shed, and down to an 8 foot ground rod for each wire run.
then i would run the heavy gauge wire around the base of the shed attaching all ground rods together, and tie that run in with the AC mains ground coming in to the shed.
Run the coax through a real lightning arrestor before it comes into the shed, and tie that lightning arrestor to your ground system.
yes, it's complicated, and can be expensive, but this should give you a guide for all the compromises you might have to make in your particular installation.
no matter what, you need to research about grounding and lightning protection.
hope this helps,
LC
It was about 25 feet off the ground to the base of the antenna. Pretty big old pecan tree. I mounted the antenna to a pole, and lashed the pole to the trunk of the tree. Tip of the antenna was right at the top of the leaves. Never had any SWR issues, even when running power.
73,
Brett
I agree with LC: you cannot have ask for too many compromises and expect stellar results. Bad dog; no biscuit.
The most invisible antenna is the simple dipole. But you cannot keep it close to the ground as it cannot achieve efficiency. It can easily built with just scrap wire and still be a champ. But it will need to be put up high enough to make it work for best results. Optimal results are what you've asked for; right?
Put it up horizontally for real DX results. Put it up vertically for best local performance. ~36 ft off of the ground should be a realistic goal with best results. Most Ham operators still use the dipole because of its simplicity, low cost, and excellent performance. 20 ft of 16 ga THHN type wire can be had at Home Depot and is ideal.
The most invisible antenna is the simple dipole. But you cannot keep it close to the ground as it cannot achieve efficiency. It can easily built with just scrap wire and still be a champ. But it will need to be put up high enough to make it work for best results. Optimal results are what you've asked for; right?
Put it up horizontally for real DX results. Put it up vertically for best local performance. ~36 ft off of the ground should be a realistic goal with best results. Most Ham operators still use the dipole because of its simplicity, low cost, and excellent performance. 20 ft of 16 ga THHN type wire can be had at Home Depot and is ideal.
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I know exactly what you're talking about, borg. Have had several attic dipoles with similar results. It's probably also affected by any nearby metal or wiring. The one thing that worked for me when talking skip was to tell everyone I was running barefoot on a homemade dipole. When people hear that they feel sorry for you and are more likely to respond.
I lived with a lady in an HOA and i painted an A99 cammo and put it in her pine tree and nobody every saw it... That was my way of sticking my middle finger up at the HOA. LMAO!
I've heard of mounting to a flag pole but never heard of using a flagpole for an antenna.
~400 feet high...that's about the tallth of an AMBC tower. Be sure the flagpole is securely attached to an 8-foot ground rod and a Π:1 balun.
Before my dipole I had a good, car magnet mount stuck on top of my fridge and I did better as far as getting out. I had a long conversation with a guy in Canada one night (from Mass). Nobody believed me but it happened
Barefoot?
- No one is chatting at the moment.
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@ BJ radionut:
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@ benc48:Need help lost my channel chart . Cobra 148 GTL with a 8719 and 11,1125 crystal 26.175 to 28.045 , Need the chart I can fill in the blanks slide 2ck up and 12 kc down
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