Trees?

[jagr707]

OK, I did do a search and came up with nothing useful for my situation. I currently rent a house, which precludes me from putting up any masts, stuff on the roof....etc. So...

My idea is to run coax through an unused CATV access outside to a very easy to climb tree. From there I want to secure a short mast off a limb with a discone and maybe a UHF stick. Now will grounding the mast with wire to the ground work or is this all a dumb idea?

This will mainly be used for receiving, but I might want to play around and get a GMRS repeater going.

Thanks!
J

 

[jagr707]

Well ok with some google massaging I found some stuff, but most of it recommends mounting AWAY from trees. I want to hear it from the experts

J

 

[SLWilson]

Well...

Well, it "probably" will RX ok. But, the antenna being in the tree and the coax run into the house, well, as long as the tree isn't hit by lightning, you "might" be OK.

But, if your landloard finds out you have a lightning rod anchored in a tree with the lead wire running into HIS house, and IF lightning hits it, you're going to have a liability situation you'd rather not live through.

But, barring that situation it would probably receive OK...

Steve

 

[hoser147]

Not a good Idea for the reason Steve mentioned and the tree will block a good portion of the signal getting to your antenna................Hoser

 

[jagr707]

Well, thats why I was asking about grounding....if I cant do it, I cant do it. It was just an idea

J

 

[hoser147]

Believe me you dont want to do it. I live in a Wooded area with old tall oaks. and when the leaves are on my Rx suffers from it. If I could use them like that I would but I wouldnt touch that with a 10 ft. pole. Do you have a chimney on the house were you could put up a chimney mount with a mast?...............Hoser

 

[blueangel-eric]

Not a good Idea for the reason Steve mentioned and the tree will block a good portion of the signal getting to your antenna................Hoser

i tried that myself putting a whip antenna in the backyard tree about 15 feet up and it took me awhile to figure out why it didn't work as good as an antenna at 4ft off the ground.

 

[k9rzz]

Can you put up a bird house? (if you get my drift)

 

[Gooser]

Can you put up a bird house? (if you get my drift)

Lots of ways to disguise an antenna...or keep it relatively low from view.
One way is a roof vent mount...not good for anteannas that get blown around alot. But I knew a gent that had a steel whip attached to a roof vent and you could barely see it.

You can also use a clothesline...the kind that is square shaped...only about 6t feet off the ground, but a discone would look like a hood ornament on it....or a whip.

If you have a two story house, maybe a wire (dipole) hung off a roof eave. I do that on my one story house and I get better reception on everything below 460 and no diff above that when compared to a RS800 duck.

Myself, I am thinking of getting a Scantenna and putting it on a short mast in the back yard since my goal is to improve 800.

 

[Highpockets]

OK, I did do a search and came up with nothing useful for my situation. I currently rent a house, which precludes me from putting up any masts, stuff on the roof....etc. So...

My idea is to run coax through an unused CATV access outside to a very easy to climb tree. From there I want to secure a short mast off a limb with a discone and maybe a UHF stick. Now will grounding the mast with wire to the ground work or is this all a dumb idea?

This will mainly be used for receiving, but I might want to play around and get a GMRS repeater going.

Thanks!
J

I remember reading someplace about an antenna that fits over your roof vent, don't know how they work, don't know anybody that has one, but I remember the web site about them, it was:

www.ventenna.com

 

[bwhite]

Mounted a low band ground plane for receiving in a maple about 20 feet up many decades ago WITH grounding. Picked up EVERYTHING I could have ever wanted in a very large county. If this is a rental situation I would strongly encourage you to get a WRITTEN ok from the landlord first.

 

[N1GTL]

... I currently rent a house, which precludes me from putting up any masts, stuff on the roof....

Did you ask the owner? I rented three times and the landlord always let me put something up. Maybe I was just lucky.

 

[unitcharlie]

A friend of mmine has a PMM3B mounted with his sat dish... his landlord only allows sat dishes and off-Air TV antennae.... he drilled a hole in the bracket holding the dish and mounted the aerial from the PMM3B to it pulling his cable at the same time as his sat cable.... I have a basic rat shack discone mounted outside second floor window using an angled mounting bracket and a huge C clamp screwed down on the outside window sill... landlord doesn't mind so long as there are no holes in the building....