HF Stealth Antenna

[fineshot1]

Anyone have any HF Stealth Antenna success stories(from experience) or advise.

I have a small deck out back ( about 8' x 11' ) and that is the only place i can mount
anything. I have some ideas already but wondering if anyone else can jog this old
grey matter of mine into some better awareness in case i have missed something
which is likely.

I am mainly concerned with 80 - 10 meters if possible and I have an icom 735
with the at-150 tuner.

Bear in mind whatever i mount must be temporary so i can keep to the HOA bylaws
by not mounting anything permanently.

[BB1A67]

HOA syndrome eh? If you have any trees nearby you could try hiding a dipole between/ through a couple of them.

[trsundstrom]

Did you see "Whip It"! on p48 of the June 2012 QST? WB8IMY describes using an MFJ antenna with a "Jaws" clamp. Set up and take-down in a few minutes. Might be doable. You could make up a multi-band counterpoise with rotor wire. Cut a 33' length. On one end solder all the wires together. Strip one wire for a 1/4-wave on each of the bands you want. Put the cut pieces together, attach to the the 33' end and chop it off for a 80/75 radial. Multiple bands, one wire package. Back when I lived in a tight development, I made 3 of these things for a 5BTV vertical on a pipe (attached to the roof peak); 3 wires instead of 15. HTH a bit.

[fineshot1]

Trees - only one and its too close to my neighbors unit and no way to run
stealth cables to/from it without gaining attention from my neighbors unit
which is right next to the tree.

Tom - the back yard area is extremely small and butts up against the
adjacent neighbors yard - the units are too close together for any type
of ground radials and my back yard is a thorofare for the children to/from
the play ground which is also next to my end unit. I do not even have
10 feet beyond my deck area. I do not get QST as I have not been an
ARRL member for a long time.

If I can I will take some pics and post them tomorrow.

Thanks folks and keep it coming.

[zz0468]

You could make a dipole out of small gauge wire and feed it with the AT-150 tuner. Make the dipole as long as you can, or as short as you have to. Feed the dipole with some of that clearish TV ribbon lead. Use the ground lug on the tuner for one side of the dipole, and don't actually ground the tuner itself.

The dipole could be under the eaves, or use the tree as the apex of a vee configuration.

The advantage to using the dipole is that no RF ground is necessary for the antenna as a counterpoise. If you can't make it long enough, 80 meters might not load up, but 40 and up probably would.

[k9rzz]

I would stealth some 40m and 20m radials in around your deck, and use a Workman Hamstick mobile whip for each band. Easy up, easy down, and they do a good job.

[fineshot1]

OK - Sorry for the delay. I finally have some pics. As you can see from these pics there
is not much of a back yard after you go beyond the deck all of which is a common area
and which is used by the children as a transit area to/from the playground area which part
of can be seen on the first pic(small fence on right) which is adjacent to my unit which is
the end unit on the right.

[trsundstrom]

How did you get clear-day pix? It's been raining all month. :-/ Pouring right now...

Seeing your neighbor's roof with a satellite dish begs the question of roof access. Can you lay out some kind of shortie loaded dipole on your roof?

[fineshot1]

[fineshot1]

For some strange unknown reason i can not seem to post any text - wtf????

I actually took the pics in between cloud bursts from my cell phone camera.

I can't put anything ( anything visible ) on the roof and roof access is gonna
be tough. I might consider a ventenna for the scanner but that is about all I
am considering for the roof.

For HF I am going to start off with trying a TAK-tenna but I have some work
to do to the deck first to prepare the mounting of it. I just need a few days
of decent weather without all this rain. The antenna will be behind that bush
on the corner so not much will be visible.

I am also going to put up another couple of antennas, one for vhf/uhf and
another for 220. All of it will be temporary mounted and if the HOA has a
problem with it I will just read them there own bylaws. One is a comet and
the other is a diamond but they are still boxed up so I forget which is which
right now.

[trsundstrom]

Don't know why I was cruising the ARRL forums tonight -- nadda on TV I guess -- and I found a similar discussion. Quoting from that:

"The Freedom to Display an American Flag of 2005 says

"A condominium association, cooperative association, or residential real estate management association may not adopt or enforce any policy, or enter into any agreement, that would restrict or prevent a member of the association from displaying the flag of the United States on residential property within the association with respect to which such member has a separate ownership interest or a right to exclusive possession or use.

"You could put up an American flag that uses an aluminum support structure, and then load up that structure as an antenna.

"Zack Lau W1VT
ARRL Senior Lab Engineer"

Looking at the pix again, the corner posts of your deck might be sufficient???

[LtDoc]

Another alternative would be to to use a mobile antenna with a removable mount on your deck's railing. Do whatever you can about laying out a few radials, roll them up when you finish using the antenna. Not a very 'good' method of going about it, but better than nothing.
The 'better' the HF antenna the less stealthy it's going to be, no way around that really. so, if you can't hide it, then make it appear to be something else. How about a bird house at about roof level? Would they go for that? Load the pole. Flag poles are an option, but really, in the backyard?
- 'Doc

[Thunderknight]

Do you have inside acces to the attic? Anything up there (mechanicals, ductwork)?
You could try an attic antenna - totally invisible
Google around for attic antennas and you'll find lots of ideas.

[KB7MIB]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; U; en-US) Gecko/20081217 Vision-Browser/8.1 301x200 LG VN530)

How about one of the Outbacker antennas with the Alpha Delta Outpost Tripod/Ground Coupler Ground Mount System? Easy up, easy down when you need it.

[nzoliver]

Hi,

With the neigbour's dish on the roff, I would assume that the rules are null and void. Nobody is going to care about a short - ish antenna (VHF/UHF ground independent mobile like the Diamond SG7000) on the roof surely- especially with the ugly dish up there already! They wouldn't even see it! HF is gonna be interesting. Fibreglass flagpole with a vertical HF inside? What is your roof made of? If it ISN'T metal then maybe an attic antenna.

A thought

Oliver
ZL3OOC

[rwilliek]

Check out The Buddipole™ - HFportable dipole antenna system

80m-2m dipoles, verticals, yagis you name it....I run full size verticals on 20m, 2 element 10m yagis, ground planes, jpoles etc etc....great products.

[fineshot1]

Hi folks and thanks for all the suggestions but I refer you to my original
post "Anyone have any HF Stealth Antenna success stories(from experience)".

I have investigated many of these suggestions and ruled them out hence
my query for anyone with "experience" on "stealth" antennas.

My attic has the heating and ac unit up there - way too much metal for
an hf antenna of any kind. I can not put up a flag pole as that is inherently
not stealth. I can not role out ground radials on the ground and have
the children running around my unit tripping over them and have angry
parents and the hoa down on me. Just because the hoa bylaws allows
for a dish on the roof does not translate the them being null and void.

A tripod mount has some merit to it except during the long cold snowy
winters. I am not going outside to switch out whips or change taps in
the winter - very bad for my arthritus.

I definately am not going up on that roof. In the immortal words of Clint
Eastwood "one has gots to know his limitations" and I certainly do.
I may hire someone to, but I am not going up.

Anyway keep the suggestions coming but bear in mind that I must
adhere to the bylaws and as long as i make a temporary mount and
it can easily be removed off the deck area I can do what ever I want
as long as it is stealthy.

EDIT: I forgot to add that during the winter I plan on leaving it setup
as long as the hoa does not complain to me.

[rwilliek]

The Buddipole is tripod mounted, and temporary....all of my parts are black, so they don't stand out.

[Viking1]

Try this...
screw a hook into the overhang of the eve above the 2nd floor window
hang this from it
9:1 Longwire, Balun, Unun, Insulator, Shortwave, Slinky, End-fed, Antenna | eBay
Use this to go through the window
NCG New Product Detail
attach 52.5 ft of black 20 ga wire
run it through the trees and anchor it with a tent stake and some camo paracord.

another trick is to look at the wire from the ground and paint what contrasts with the sky a blue-gray and paint olive green what passes through the trees......

wa-la stealth HF antenna 80-10m, and since you put it on a "hook" it's "tempoary" and removeable as far as the HOA is concerned.

[ranger821]