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Part 3 Try and try again….
4 August 2023 | by 
Attic Sidekick
In this final segment of antenna challenges, I want to take a look at some of the successes and failures. One antenna I tried was a screwdriver antenna ( High Sierra Sidekick) mounted in the attic with ground radials but for some reason, I was never able to get a good SWR.
I then moved it outside at the side of our deck steps as I did not want the condo police to see it. With this setup I needed to setup and take down the antenna each time it was used. To speed things up I buried the coax to the mounting location and I had a piece of 90-degree conduit attached to the deck step and it would swing out when I wanted to mount the antenna.
Sidekick outside.
The mount I used was called a Jawmount this allow fast install and take down. I also buried the radials in the ground around the deck and out into the yard. This setup also meant I had to keep the snow cleared on the deck steps and around the antenna mounting position. In the end I wanted to have something more stealth and had better results as well as less trips out doors.
My next idea was the gutter and what I did here was used the center conductor from the coax and the braid was attached to the radials I used for the screwdriver antenna. The Elecraft K3 tuner was able to tune the gutter but I had a lot of noise and issues getting out. So it was back to the ground-mounted screwdriver antenna for now.
I also tried just plain old portable operation from home as well but that would be limited to summer time only. I set up on my deck using the Elecraft KX1 with the miracle whip antenna and also a portable mag loop. This was a nice setup with decent results but was limited to summers with nice days.
The next idea I just can't believe I even did but I did and it worked very well. In the townhouse complex we lived in our cars were parked in a common parking lot we had no garage or driveway. Our home backed onto a large green space that connected to this parking lot. The gears in my head started turning..if I could get coax from the back of the house through the field to the car parked in the parking lot I then could put an HF antenna on the car and I would be good to go! Now that I look back I just can't believe I did this but I did. I purchased a large HF mobile multi-band vertical the Valor ProAm AB-5. Now it gets really good...I was able to get free from work 3/4 inch poly pipe. I rolled it out and bury about 60 feet of it in the green space almost to the car. Now that was a lot of work and done in such a way that it did not attract attention....don't ask.....Anyway fed LMR 400 in the pipe that I purchased cheaply at a flea market. The poly pipe was connected to a plastic waterproof box and the LMR 400 was terminated to an SO-239. When I wanted to get on the air I place the antenna on the car via a trunk lip mount and ran some RG8X from the antenna to the box where the LMR was terminated. This worked great for years and I was very fast at putting it up and down.
Portable deck ops
Well as they say all good things come to an end...I came home from work one day to find the city decided to put a walking path in the green space and in the process dug up my poly pipe and LMR 400. I am guessing they had no idea what it was. They had already left for the day as I arrived home so it was time to move fast! I pulled out all the LMR 400 coax and removed from the ground about 15 feet of poly pipe that was close to the townhouse. Well, it was good while it lasted but now it was time to start thinking again.
This was when I came up with the idea of the Alpha Delta in the attic (See part 1 in this series) Well that is it for my restricted antenna adventures and I hope you enjoyed and possibly came away with some ideas.
Side note: Not sure what is going on with some of the text sizing in the post I tried to fix it and just ended up with more issues. Sorry for the sections of smaller print.
4 Responses to “Part 3 Try and try again….”
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WONDERFUL ARTICLE, & INFO MIKE–VE9KK. I WANTED TO EXPAND ON WHAT I HAD STATED BEFORE ABOUT MY “ALPHA-DELTA DX-EE”, SHORTY DIPOLE. AT IT’S 40 FOOT LENGTH, IT FITS OUR ATTIC JUST FINE. I USED “MINI-8 COAX”, RUN FROM BASEMENT SHACK TO FEED POINT. PLEASE NOTE THAT IT HAS 3 WIRE ELEMENTS, & ONE FEED POINT, TO CONNECT YOUR COAX TO. WITH NEAT SPACERS TO KEEP THEM EACH SEPERATED BY SEVERAL INCHES, 10 METER WIRE, 15 METER WIRE, & 20 METER WIRE, WITH COILS ON ENDS FOR 40-METERS. ALL IN ALL, A TOTAL LENGTH OF 40 FEET. INSULATORS, WITH TIE-OFF ROPES AT EACH END. I HAD A CLEAR RUN OF 40 FEET AT THE APEX OF THE ROOF TRUSSES, THAT RAN NORTH & SOUTH. OUR ROOF PEAK, OF OUR TOWNHOUSE IS ONLY ABOUT 20 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL. IT HAS BEEN UP FOR 20 SOME YEARS NOW, UP & OUT OF ANY WEATHER. WHEN THE BANDS ARE IN, I CAN GET MY SIGNALS HEARD & CAN COPY WELL. MY 43 YEAR OLD KENWOOD TS-520 IN 1976 WHEN MADE GENERAL, & IT’S STILL MY MAIN RIG ! IT WILL PUMP OUT ABOUT 65 TO 70 WATTS ON CW. I’M SURE ANYONE WITH ANY SPACE IN THEIR ATTIC, CAN PUT THIS ANTENNA UP, WITH GOOD RESULTS, EVEN BENDING ENDS TO FIT. THE PRICE IS SURE GOOD, & IT’S VERY STURDY, & WELL MADE. FOR ME, IT HAS BEEN A HOBBY SAVER, AS WE ARE IN A “H.O.A. ANTENNA RESTRICTED ASSOCIATION”. NO COMPLAINTS FROM NEIGHBORS WITH T.V.I. ECT. OVER THE YEARS, CABLE T.V. & DIGITAL T.V. HAVE EASED T.V.I. COMPLAINTS. ONE SUGGESTION FOR HAMS, IS TO BE SURE TO FIND, & USE A GOOD H.F. LOW PASS FILTER. WISH ALL HAMS GOOD LUCK, & DX WITH YOUR ANTENNA SET UP. 73 DE, KD0QV–JIM IN IOWA
Good morning Jim and thanks for taking the time to leave a comment, I fully agree on all your points regarding the DX-EE. The time that I had the antenna it worked great and mine unlike yours was bent on angles so it would fit in the attic and even with those bends it worked just fine.
Thanks again Jim for stopping by and enjoy your weekend.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
Your ground plane is almost non-existent.
Take a look at the ground radials in a medium wave antennas.
You might want to try making it into a folded monopole, which requires no ground plane.
Good morning Bill, very nice to hear from you. Well these antenna pics were tried years ago and have since entered the history books. I fully agree with you and it was a “let see what happens if I do this” setup. Very good point about the monopole.
73 and have a good upcoming weekend,
Mike
VE9KK