New Ham, Need Help

[fourstringburn]

It looks like you live in a duplex so that limits you on stringing dipole wires. Also with dipoles, they're best to be strung in a north/south direction so the broadside of the antenna is east/west. This is where the strongest signal is radiated from.These can be at NE/SW angles depending where you live in the country and where you really want the strongest part of your signal heading to.

Which direction is your house facing?

From what I see in the pics, I'm not seeing trees in the backyard, only the sides of the house, And if your house is facing east/west, then wire dipoles may not be best for your location.

Without putting up a $10,000 Yagi antenna system, what I see is a Vertical antenna might be best for your location. A ground mounted 43 ft. vertical or the pole mounted types but these require more installation requirements and guy wires. The 43 ft. ground mounted antenna claims to be self-supporting but requires using a tuner, preferably an outdoor auto-tuner used at the base of the antenna.

Both types of verticals usually require a counter-poise usually being ground mounted radials which is typically nothing more than 14 gauge wire cut to 1/4 wavelengths of each frequency you operated on strung out away from the base of the antenna. The longest radial will be for 80 meters at 66 ft. Two radials per band should be a minimum, but the more the better. They can be lightly buried so the grass will cover them up.

Here is a pic of a ground mounted vertical antenna. This is just a suggestion and more people posting here may have better ones.

 

[fourstringburn]

hit the local flea market today but low turn out so not much there, the past few weeks

Look for "Hamfests" in your area. These are mostly flea markets for Hams selling there stuff. Most of these Hamfests dates and locations can be found online through Ham websites.

 

[2RT307]

WD, I can't tell by the pics how everything is oriented. Is the duples east/west or north/south? Are the trees behind your place, and do you have access to them? Where is the pole from your half of the duplex? Are you able to use it at all? Either the trees or the pole could be a possible place to tie off a wire antenna. You can probably do an end fed half wave or end fed random wire. If possible, can you take pictures from further away, and indicate which part of the building is yours? And measure the distance (use your feet) from house to tree, and house to pole?

73,
Brett

 

[BJ radionut]

http://rfhillarc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/HamfestFlyer2014.pdf

http://www.w3rrr.org/files/flyer2016Hamfest.pdf

November 12
(Saturday)

Pocono Manor, PA - Tech Night Amateur Radio Club, Cabin Fever HamFest
Carriage House Resort - Pocono Manor, Manor Drive, Pocono Manor, PATech Night Amateur Radio Club (KB3YMY), mailing address unknown
Contact: June Parker, KB3YKF, 742 Gilbert Road, Gilbert, PA 18331
610-659-1074 (June) or 570-839-3083 (Tim) or 570-801-1974 (Kevin)
Talk-In: 146.865- (PL 77.0)
GPS: N 41° 06.005 W 075° 21.537 (approx)
E-mail: wea807@ptd.net
website unknown
Cost: TBD; Tailgate $5, Indoors start at $10
Discounted overnight accommodations

http://www.arrl.org/find-an-amateur-radio-license-exam-session

 

[WantDistance]

Many thanks for the responses and the link to that Hamfest! Probably a bit over an hour away with good traffic. I'll have to check it out if I have that day off of work! I took some more pics of the house. The building is on and east to west street, with the front and back of the building north and south. I'm in southeast quadrant. 4 apartments squared off. Mine is the one all the pics are of, you may be able to see the cut off for my apartment on the far right of some pictures, they're not big apartments, hopefully with additional pics you can get an idea of my area

 

[WantDistance]

 

[WantDistance]

Images of the roof are from me standing next to the metal pole. Trees are about 25 ft away and pole is 15ft from corner of the apartment.

 

[Road Squawker]

I would really consider putting a multiband MOXON on that pole

 

[2RT307]

I would really consider putting a multiband MOXON on that pole

You might be on to something there. Only concern to me is that it's not very high. Not for performance, which I think would be fine, but from aesthetics... the neighbors or landlord might complain. The higher up they are, the smaller they look, right?

I'm thinking running coax to the pole, then running an end fed or OCFD from there to the trees. He can do multi band with either antenna, and still use the internal antenna tuner.

73,
Brett

 

[BJ radionut]

http://www.k4kio.com/

 

[Robb]

A longwire; attached to the highest tree within ~270 ft.
Need a tuner; but should work OK.
Practically invisible.

 

[StrangeBrew]

A CobWebb may be worth considering.

 

[fourstringburn]

I forgot about Hex beams. Good choice for bands up to 20 meters with limited space and needing a lightweight antenna.

Nice to have something for 40 meters. 66 ft. of wire should work well for a mono band 40m and it looks like he has the space for it.

It doesn't look like he has room for 265 ft or 133 ft. of wire for 80m or 160m, but I could live without those 2 bands.

 

[vkrules]

Congrats on the licence.
Is the aircon on your unit, will that be your entrance point ?

Looking at the pics you posted you have plenty of options.

Start looking for wire .,insulated house hold electrical wire can work well or household earth wire. Enameled copper wire becomes almost invisible after it has been up a while . Big gauge copper can be expensive You can purchase new or salvage it from old transformers remember if going stealth the wire only has to be strong enough to support its own weight . I have built successful antennas out of 22# wire that could handle a couple of hundred watts ( or course 10# would be better )

The trees are your friends . Good tie off point and will help hide your antenna, if the trees not high enough you can put a pole up in the tree and it is still mostly hidden.

Dont worry about orientation 40m or 80m antenna will most likely be to low to show any sort of directivity
That pole would make a great mount for a vertical or a second tie off point.
Unless you have a understanding landlord and neighbors A multiband beam is out of the question.

So I would go with either an end fed with as much wire as you can go into the highest point of that tree.( and why I say end fed is that the hardware ,balun coax etc is at one end and is easier to hide.) or a vertical on that pole . You can get telescopic fishing poles at lengths up to 43ft long and that would work well off that pole..
have a look at Moleculo's
Homebrew 9:1 Unun for random length wire antennas

 

[WantDistance]

Was up on the roof today and found this vent pipe right above my apartment. Basically right above where my station would be. Not sure if this changes much.