HOA's antennas

[sloop]

I will soon be moving into a HOA house and I need suggestions/help on an HF antenna. The longest wire antenna I could put up would be less than 50 feet long (no trees). Inside the attic I could mount a HVU-8, but the area not long enough for any size wire antenna. A magnetic loop antenna would fit but I would like to run 100 watts on 80 meters. On 80 my two main frequencies are 3.723.0 and 3.855.0, too far apart in band spread for the HVU-8; not sure about the magnetic loop antenna. I might be able to get permission (I am the only ham in the community) to put in a vertical, but no room for radials. I do have an IC-AH4 and a Z-11 tuner that I can use. BTW, my IC-7200 is finicky about high SWR, it has a built in 2.0 SWR cutoff and is very strict about that limit. I hope that you are seeing my dilemma. Well, good luck and any help will be appreciated. I have about a month before I move to figure this out.

 

[WB9YBM]

There are two options that come to mind that I've seen in actual use (proving at least minimally that the ideas work):

• a long-wire (with a tuner) inside a fiberglass flag pole, with the feed line buried (to make it less easily seen) until it reaches the house;
• I heard about an apartment maintenance person that made sure the buildings' rain gutters were electrically bonded and insulated downspouts (so people touching them at ground level would not get electrocuted), feeding it with a wire and running an antenna tuner.

Since I heard about them second-hand I can't personally vouch for the performance, but at least the ops were able to get on the air.

 

[K6GBW]

Is it a two story house / townhome / condo? Is there a yard? What are your goals for your set up? My first thought would be a short end fed with the transformer mounted under a rear eave or soffit. Place an eyelet on the soffit as a strain relief and run a 41 to 53 foot wire down to someplace in the backyard. You will need an external tuner with this set up but it will work 80-10m. On 80 it won't have the greatest signal and will be very NVIS but given your circumstances it may be all you can do. I have a set up like this with 18AWG wire and it is nearly invisible. I use a simple MFH-901B tuner with it and it works very well. On 80m I'm heard about 300 miles in all directions.

 

[merlin]

A buddy SWL has a good dipole strung right at the edge of the roof.runs the entire perimeter.
Reminds me of a rombic bent all out of shape but it works and unless pointed out, you never would see it.
Something like this simple square shack:
73s

 

[n5ims]

While I'm not in an HOA community, I do have another agency that is much more strict and demanding on my antenna setup, WIFE. I currently have a 40/20 fan dipole that's attached to the side of my fence and with the built-in tuner I can work all bands from 40 - 6. I know it's not very efficient on many of the bands but works OK to good on FT4/FT8. With that setup, I got my WAS on 40 FT8 in just under a month in Feb 2020 and still need 6 confirmed countries for my DXCC (mixed bands). If anyone can see it, they're invading my space so that should be HOA acceptable.

 

[tweiss3]

You could look at "flag pole" antennas. I've heard good things about Greyline products, but you would have to check if your HOA will allow a flag pole.

 

[sloop]

Thanks for all the good suggestions. It looks like I am going to have to go with an HVU-6 (big compromise) in the attic since I don't have the room for a long wire antenna or for radials for a vertical. O'well, it will be better than nothing.