HF antenna

[ILSAPP]

Hello all,

I'd like to ask for your advice regarding building/buying a HF antenna. (Neighbours are already informed of my intentions to build an antenna for TX and are ok with it).
I live in 1st floor and would like to take profit of the balcony area (small but it's what I have - please see attached picture) to get the most of my transceiver specially on 10-40m bands. Transceiver will deliver 100W output power and most of the time I'll be using SSB voice. For RX I'm currently using a 1m diameter loop (with an amplifier) which is working very good!
I'm thinking in an EFHW but not sure if it's the best choice here. Also don't really know which wire configuration I should start with in order to have the most of wire possible laying around but at the same time don't compromise the antenna pattern and performance.

Dimensions:
Length: 11'
Width: 4.5'
Height: 8.5'


Any help would be very appreciated!


Thank you

 

[prcguy]

Is there something 60-70ft out from the building you could attach a wire to, even temporarily? How about roof access? There may be a common cable shaft that goes to the roof or sometimes you can drop a cable down a vent pipe on the roof and pull it out in your unit. Otherwise that's a pretty bad situation.

 

[W4AXW]

Not really suggesting this but here's what I did for about a couple years in a second floor condo:


Had wires tuned for 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10 meters. Just swapped wires out for whichever band was open at the time. Built a wire Moxon for 6m. Both worked better than expected. 50+ DXCCs on phone, 100w max.

Most people here discount dipoles as weak or having big nulls but they are highly efficient radiators and Inverted Vs nulls are small.

Someone will most likely suggest a MagLoop.

7 3

 

[ILSAPP]

Thanks for the reply.
Well I have two street lamps nearby to attach the wire but wonder if it will be a good option - pictures below.
Yes I have roof access but of course I need to ask for permission from the condo. I'll try to get some pictures when I get there.
In the living room I don't have any vent exit so I need to explore other options to get the cable there.

 

[ILSAPP]

Thanks for the reply.
Seems an interesting solution but unfortunately it does not cover the 40m band which I'm interested as well. However for the total wire length used that is pretty impressive!

 

[KC5AKB]

If you have roof access. Think of it as a set up in a park. Just go to the roof and set up like you were in the park.

 

[merlin]

With roof access and permission to attach a wire antenna, you might consider some form of terminated dipole. It would mean running wire at the perrimiter of the roof then an open wire feed dropped along side the building to an entry point at your room. Then with a balun, you can run coax to a point in you radio room. A tuner would not really be needed but would help, then a short run to switches etc to the radios.
These dipols can be configured a number of ways and perform very well from 1.8 to over 55 MHz

 

[merlin]

Thanks for the reply.
Well I have two street lamps nearby to attach the wire but wonder if it will be a good option - pictures below.
Yes I have roof access but of course I need to ask for permission from the condo. I'll try to get some pictures when I get there.
In the living room I don't have any vent exit so I need to explore other options to get the cable there.

You may have problems running to street lamp or utility poles. Here in the US, there are laws and ordinances against it. Not to mention, most street lams are bad at generating noise.

 

[merlin]

Someone on another thread asked about Shakespear HF marine antenna, that would be like a 23 foot vertical whip.
You would need a remote tuner at the base, and a suitable ground or counterpoise.

 

[K6GBW]

A Wolf River antenna mounted to the rail would work and not be an eye sore to the neighbors.