Apartment Antennas

[aggmeister2010]

Hello All,

I live on the top (third) floor of my apartment complex. My office is right next to a window with a gutter above of it. Technically they won't allow radio/satellite antennas, but I have gotten permission to mount an antenna on the window sill or gutter as long as it is relatively "hard to see, or low profile."

I'm new to radio, this is my first setup. I'm trying to figure out what I could hook up to my new Icom 208H to help me get started and have enough reception to keep talking and learning about radio. I have a handful of "phantom" mobile antennas, but they're so small I can't imagine they'd give me good reception. I also have a NMO mount 'scanner' antenna a friend was using on his work truck with a 36" whip, which covers 144/440 MHz.

I'm curious if I could hook any of that gear up to some sort of gutter / window sill mount and run that back via coax to the 208H, or if there are any other "lower profile" antennas I could use. I am not opposed to indoor antennas (I have the attic since I'm on the top floor).

I apologize that this is so open ended and general, I'm new and don't have enough expertise to be super precise yet. Any help y'all can offer is appreciated.

 

[LtDoc]

I would think that if that gutter is metal, and if you could clamp an antenna to it (mobile antenna?), it should work better than a rubber duck on your radio. How much better? I can't say, but it'd have to be better.
If you don't use that window much (open/closed) then you could also tape an antenna to it. A 2 meter antenna shouldn't be that difficult to make at all.
Where ever you get an antenna mounted, running a feed line back to your radio is the next step. Almost any 'size' cable should work depending on the length of the run.
Have fun.
- 'Doc

 

[aggmeister2010]

I would think that if that gutter is metal, and if you could clamp an antenna to it (mobile antenna?), it should work better than a rubber duck on your radio. How much better? I can't say, but it'd have to be better.
If you don't use that window much (open/closed) then you could also tape an antenna to it. A 2 meter antenna shouldn't be that difficult to make at all.
Where ever you get an antenna mounted, running a feed line back to your radio is the next step. Almost any 'size' cable should work depending on the length of the run.
Have fun.
- 'Doc

Hey Doc,

Thanks for the feedback. The gutter is metal, and I have a few NMO "trunk lip mounts" already made that I could run back inside through a small gap in the window. No big deal there. I'll try that and see how it goes.

 

[bdub5]

apartment options...

I don't know what floor you live on but I have one of these roll up j pole type antennas hanging on the wall upstairs for local repeater work. I have talked simplex on it at a distance of about 15 miles.

I would consider this as an option. Here is a review about it and the article has a link for purchase.

N9TAX 2 Meter 450 Ohm Ladder Line Slim Jim Antenna Review!

 

[aggmeister2010]

I don't know what floor you live on but I have one of these roll up j pole type antennas hanging on the wall upstairs for local repeater work. I have talked simplex on it at a distance of about 15 miles.

I would consider this as an option. Here is a review about it and the article has a link for purchase.

N9TAX 2 Meter 450 Ohm Ladder Line Slim Jim Antenna Review!

Third floor. I could hang one of those along the wall, but that would cut out 180 degrees worth of signal. Something to look into if my nmo scanner whip thingy doesn't get many results.

 

[popnokick]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 7_0_4 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.51.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0 Mobile/11B554a Safari/9537.53)

I worked the Space Shuttle with a roll-up J-pole. They have their uses.
You may also want to consider a 5/8 or half wave mobile antenna.... Either of which will be less critical about your ground plane (or lack thereof).

 

[aggmeister2010]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 7_0_4 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.51.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0 Mobile/11B554a Safari/9537.53)

I worked the Space Shuttle with a roll-up J-pole. They have their uses.
You may also want to consider a 5/8 or half wave mobile antenna.... Either of which will be less critical about your ground plane (or lack thereof).

That's quite impressive. How do you have it set up?