I live in a community with HOA antenna restrictions. My home is concrete block with a concrete barrel tile roof. As a result, the interior of my home is essentially an inefficient but nevertheless effective Faraday cage. Compounding the problem is a high level of electronic noise inside my home created from electronic light dimmers, electronically controlled appliances, multiple computers, etc. With respect to a reasonable HF receive only antenna, I need something external to the interior of my home and essentially invisible as even a small loop would cause some neighbors and the HOA to go thermo-nuclear.
I considered two solutions; using the rain gutters or running a long wire along the peak of the roof. The metal rain gutters, although long enough, are grounded, albeit poorly, and it is not at all obvious where the ground point(s) are. Therefore the rain gutters are not viable.
Are concrete tiles sufficiently conductive to seriously degrade the HF receive performance of an approximately 60 foot long wire literally attached to and resting on the concrete peak? I would be very interested in hearing from anyone else that might have tried this approach to see if it even approaches a worthwhile effort.
At least two homes in my 850 home community have flag poles in their front yards (they do not appear to be stealth antennas). For multiple reasons, including cost, appearance, and the obvious attention it will bring, make me want to want to avoid that solution.
I use a dual band UHF/VHF vertical in the attic for both transmitting and receiving but its performance is barely full quieting even with nearby repeaters but is sufficient to be usable. Although I would like to transmit on HF, right now my primary goal is to have a reasonable HF antenna for receive only but it must be 100% invisible.
I considered two solutions; using the rain gutters or running a long wire along the peak of the roof. The metal rain gutters, although long enough, are grounded, albeit poorly, and it is not at all obvious where the ground point(s) are. Therefore the rain gutters are not viable.
Are concrete tiles sufficiently conductive to seriously degrade the HF receive performance of an approximately 60 foot long wire literally attached to and resting on the concrete peak? I would be very interested in hearing from anyone else that might have tried this approach to see if it even approaches a worthwhile effort.
At least two homes in my 850 home community have flag poles in their front yards (they do not appear to be stealth antennas). For multiple reasons, including cost, appearance, and the obvious attention it will bring, make me want to want to avoid that solution.
I use a dual band UHF/VHF vertical in the attic for both transmitting and receiving but its performance is barely full quieting even with nearby repeaters but is sufficient to be usable. Although I would like to transmit on HF, right now my primary goal is to have a reasonable HF antenna for receive only but it must be 100% invisible.
