Reception problems in apartment!

[tarheel59]

Hello, I am having reception problems in the apartment I live in. I listen to 151 to 155 mghz. and 450 to 460 mghz. and some 42 to 44 mghz. I am using a BC9000XLT hooked to a wire antenna stretched across window sill. Most of the repeaters are within 15 miles. I am in a bottom apt. My reception in my old residence was 100% better,but it was not an apt. Any help or tips would be appreciated. I am new to this site. Thanks, I hope this the correct place to post this in.

 

[ka3jjz]

A wire antenna strung like that is very inefficient, as well as being horizontal, where signal loss will also cost you (public service transmissions tend to be vertically polarized). The lack of height is also a problem. Probably your best bet would be to get a good magmount and put it on the air conditioner or someplace outside that has a good deal of metal. Barring that, find a sweet spot in the apartment - it will take some experimentation.
Perhaps even putting it on your refrigerator (some have found that effective because of all the metal making a decent ground plane).

Not an easy situation to improve, unfortunately.

73s and GL...Mike

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi Tar and all,

Mike has a decent sort of idea but still VHF Lo Band will be a problem. About the closest thing to a solution would be something along the lines of a Scantenna leaning into the corner of the room preferably hidden by a drapery, the darn thing is ugly.

Right, life in a ground floor apartment isn't easy but it could be worse, you could be living in the basement. No it could be even worse than that, you could be a HAM living in the basement! OOOoooh, now I'm going to have nightmares.

 

[trooperdude]

Any sort of metal balcony railing ???

You could go with a marine antenna railing mount and then run Rg6 quad shield with
one of those flat-coax pass through jumpers through a window or
sliding door.

Just remove the antenna when not in use if it bothers the management.

It's not permanent and doesn't damage the building common areas.

I set this up for a friend in a similar situation and it works well over the inside
antenna reception.

 

[benjaminarthurt]

I am in the same boat...

I have a Mag mount mobile scanner antenna sitting on a filing cabinet in front of a window. With good results...

I still haven't come up with a good solution for transmitting yet.

 

[W5TWX]

I haven't tried it but I heard where somebody else used a mag mount hanging from a ceiling air conditioning vent and it worked pretty good.

 

[tarheel59]

Thanks guys for the info. I am trying to figure out where to put a mag mount. Doing some experimenting with dipole antenna I have. Moving dipole has helped some.

 

[NeFire242]

Heres a good thread on some apt antenna ideas and pix.
http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61670