Tech Shield as an Antenna!

[cpfinlay]

I live in a very nice community that strictly enforces deed restrictions: among those are antennas.

When we built this house, we made sure it had “Tech Shield” as part of the roof based on the electricity savings my wife realized when she re-roofed her previous house. Unfortunately, it acts as a big RF shield!! We use UMA at home for the cell phones. I purchased and installed a Ventenna VT-27 dual band for 2m and 70cm activity and am very pleased with how it has performed.

I recently picked up an Icom R1500 and using an inside antenna it is totally dead. In preparation for the addition of a Ventenna VT-SWL active antenna, I ran some more coax into the attic. While I was up there, I noticed that there are little metal clips that join each of the Tek Shield panels together and I wondered how it might work as an antenna, so I temporarily connected it to the coax. I was surprised how well my Tek Shield roof antenna works on HF!!! It’s still fairly deaf on VHF/UHF, but thought I’d share my crazy idea for a temporary antenna with y’all.

 

[tomfassett]

Sometimes weird things happen. One thing I have found to try while in the car is if the transmission on the scanner starts deteriorating, is to try grabbing the antenna between your thumb and finger. Somethimes your body can change the Q of the antenna enough to help restore a weak signal. The only problem with things like this (as well as what you did) is they can change with temperature, humidity, atmospheric conditions, the color of socks you are wearing, etc... They are rarely a stable and permanent answer (or a reliable replacement for a specific antenna).

On the subject of deed restrictions, I have a buddy who lives in Connecticut and he has the same problem. He bought a short piece of 3" PVC pipe and painted it to look like the (rooftop) sewer gas vent and mounted it on the other side of the roof. Inside is a "rubber ducky" antenna (just like the one on his hand held scanner). It increased his scanning range in the VHF band by a good 20 miles and about 10 miles in the UHF band. After 5 years, nobody is the wiser...

Tom F

 

[RadioDaze]

I'm a big fan of the Ventenna.

 

[ab3a]

In elementary school I can recall building crystal radios. The problem was that I didn't have a good antenna. I ended up using an FM antenna and laying it down on the radiator in my room on the second floor of our old house. There was no conductive path to the radiator, but for some unusual reason I was getting a lot of signals.

I had always been curious what was going on there. Decades later, it dawned on me that my "antenna" was capacitively coupled to our hot water radiator system. The thing was probably somewhat resonant. I was picking up a lot of signal from a system that had many capacitative stubs.

My point for relating this story is that you can stumble across some surprisingly effective antennas with just a little bit of thought.

 

[ridgescan]

I like this thread-finlay keep it up! Experimenting is half the fun in this hobby-I've been known to have a couple of pretty hokey setups here too-but they worked in spite of their affront to theory lol.

 

[Rt169Radio]

That is a interesting idea for a antenna,how did you exactly attach it to the coax?

 

[cpfinlay]

That is a interesting idea for a antenna,how did you exactly attach it to the coax?

I had attached a small, telescopic antenna to the end of the coax. I collapsed it and wedged it between a roof joist and the tech shield. lol

I am getting local AM, FM, WX and some shortwave. Got WWV on 10 and 15mhz. But honestly, I am looking forward to getting the active SWL Ventenna up. I want to see how well I will recieve the 2m and 70cm repeaters with it. If not very well, I guess I will need to invest in an antenna "combiner" or maybe a switch.

This reminds me of when I was a kid. ha

 

[exkalibur]

Are you an Amateur operator? Isn't there something down that way that says if you're an FCC licensed amateur such antenna restrictions don't apply?

Does that also include satellite dish antennas? At a place I used to live at, they wouldn't let me install an antenna on the roof, but they had no problem with a DTV dish. Well, that DTV dish also had an NMO-270 dual band mounted to where the LNB would normally go. Nobody was the wiser =)

 

[cpfinlay]

Are you an Amateur operator? Isn't there something down that way that says if you're an FCC licensed amateur such antenna restrictions don't apply?

Does that also include satellite dish antennas? At a place I used to live at, they wouldn't let me install an antenna on the roof, but they had no problem with a DTV dish. Well, that DTV dish also had an NMO-270 dual band mounted to where the LNB would normally go. Nobody was the wiser =)

PRB-1 covers federal pre-emption over local ordinances, not CCR's. We're working on those, too.

Satellite dishes (by law) cannot be prevented, so that is a definite option! But I greatly prefer my Ventenna and am just playing around until it gets here.

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[7designs]

I live in a very nice community that strictly enforces deed restrictions: among those are antennas.

I live in a neighborhood like yours. I use wire antennas. You cannot see the 18ga wires on my property.

 

[KC4RAF]

Ingenuity has created many unusal looking

antennas that were great signal getters. Just like the Tech Shield, or the invisible 18ga wires, and a whole slew of other designs.There's the Coat Pole, the hanging flower device, etc. The amagination is a wonderful thing ain't it! lol And the dog gone things would work very well most of the time!!!