Indoor antenna options?

[dlwtrunked]

I managed to get my hands on a copy of the HOA rules. Apparently satellite dishes are allowed if less than 3 feet across, with written approval by the board and used for video purposes only and installed by the vendor. No AM/FM/HAM/VHF etc. other type of antennas may installed. So much for that idea..

You give up far too easy. The law allows TV antennas. Put up an antenna. Tell them it is for TV, even hook it to one when needed to show them. If they still complain, show them a real TV antenna in a catalog and ask them if they want that up there instead.

By the way, they cannot force you to use cable TV instead of an actual antenna.

 

[wcsd45]

I had some modest success earning HOA approval for EF wire (current) and vertical (future) exterior amateur band antennas by starting application showing HOA what I was NOT gonna do (big beams on towers). New to HF but, Ultimax 100 is working fine business. Discone in garage attic, also FB. It's not optimal of course, but I enjoy it a bunch.

No condo owners I talk with are happy with agenda-driven oversight. Messy at best, subject to ebb and flow of craaaazy.

 

[prcguy]

I ran across an antenna in my garage I had forgot about and if the OP could find one it makes a great all purpose antenna for the attic. These were made for Govt spook agencies and typically sat above ceiling tiles in office environments. The Discone parts are inside a plastic enclosure shaped like a small trash can with a channel for the coax to exit sideways out the bottom. The specs say 100KHz to 10GHz in receive mode, which is nuts but it does actually work in some capacity across that range, although not anything like a long outdoor wire antenna.

I bought two of these many years ago and had traded one off then forgot I still had one. I will probably weather proof it someday and stick it on my tower. If I could only put antennas in my attic there would be one of these up there.

Surplus SRI Discone info

There has been several of these unique ultra broad band Discones on Ebay recently and they could provide some very interesting monitoring capabilities. I'm posting this info that will hopefully show up in a Google search since the actual part # 26401/7447-1 does not link to any useful...

forums.radioreference.com

 

[Mike_G_D]

I ran across an antenna in my garage I had forgot about and if the OP could find one it makes a great all purpose antenna for the attic. These were made for Govt spook agencies and typically sat above ceiling tiles in office environments. The Discone parts are inside a plastic enclosure shaped like a small trash can with a channel for the coax to exit sideways out the bottom. The specs say 100KHz to 10GHz in receive mode, which is nuts but it does actually work in some capacity across that range, although not anything like a long outdoor wire antenna.

I bought two of these many years ago and had traded one off then forgot I still had one. I will probably weather proof it someday and stick it on my tower. If I could only put antennas in my attic there would be one of these up there.

Surplus SRI Discone info

There has been several of these unique ultra broad band Discones on Ebay recently and they could provide some very interesting monitoring capabilities. I'm posting this info that will hopefully show up in a Google search since the actual part # 26401/7447-1 does not link to any useful...

forums.radioreference.com

LOL! I'm the guy you sold your other one to about four years ago and it's still my main antenna! Still works very well on uhf and above and ok lower. Does freak my roommate, who has a very suspicious nature (meaning he is very suspicious of anything or anybody he doesn't understand) out! I made the mistake of telling him it was a government surplus prototype surveillance antenna and now I think he thinks I'm monitoring him somehow! Anyway, it's definitely a novel little thing but does the job.

-Mike

 

[prcguy]

Hi Mike, nice to hear from you again and I'm glad your enjoying the antenna. I wish there were more to go around as it fits the bill for many people out here with antenna restrictions. I started to take mine apart but its glued in the plastic bucket really well and its would be a risky job trying to remove the glue.

I was searching for an old plastic radome from a steerable dish antenna for boats so I could mount my antenna inside for protection outdoors but people seem to want a fortune for their surplus radomes these days.

LOL! I'm the guy you sold your other one to about four years ago and it's still my main antenna! Still works very well on uhf and above and ok lower. Does freak my roommate, who has a very suspicious nature (meaning he is very suspicious of anything or anybody he doesn't understand) out! I made the mistake of telling him it was a government surplus prototype surveillance antenna and now I think he thinks I'm monitoring him somehow! Anyway, it's definitely a novel little thing but does the job.

-Mike

 

[stingray327]

Back of the set antenna or a telecope antenna works.

 

[jonwienke]

Back of the set antenna or a telecope antenna works.

And other options work a lot better.

 

[stingray327]

How about a magnet mount antenna?

 

[ka3jjz]

You won't be able to get it up as high as being in the attic. But if you don't have an attic, it's probably better than the back of the set antenna since you can move it around to some extent to find a sweet spot....Mike

 

[N9JIG]

I agree with Mike, not an ideal solution but not bad at times.

When we bought our new home a few years ago I had a few of those $20 mag-mounts sold everywhere as both Dual band ham and as scanner antennas and put them on a large book case, using some of my wife's brownie pans as ground planes. They worked great all summer long until I could get into the attic and mount my regular base antennas there.

When I lived in an apartment years back I had a mag-mount on a thru-the-wall AC unit and snaked the cable in thru the baffle, again, it worked great.

Of course it is always best to get your antenna up and out but sometimes it just isn't feasible and one has to make do with what you can get away with.