Brian, VE7NGR, asked:
...Right now I've got no antenna at all.
I'm away from home for about 15 months, living in an 11x15 foot room. It's
basically the equivalent of a small hotel room. It's on the 3rd floor and
has a window, but no balcony. It's probably not a great idea to string wire
out the window (it's military barracks). I should be able to get away with
attaching stuff to the walls.
So - any antenna suggestions? Preferably something inexpensive and easy to
build as I have almost no tools here. Some ideas I've been thinking about
are a random wire (using the tuner), a homebrew buddipole, perhaps a
magnetic loop to stick by the window, or a shortened vertical.
The rig is a K2/100, and I do have a MFJ tuner if I need it.
All suggestions gratefully accepted!
-
Are you by chance in a wooden barracks building such as I recall lo' these
many years ago? Or in one of those modern monoliths of military might made
from concrete and steel?
If wood, I'd suggest ignoring the building itself. It won't do the RF much
harm. I'd go for a balanced (or sorta balanced) situation. Run two wires up
the wall from the ATU to the ceiling. Make them about 2 or 3 inches apart.
That's your "balanced line". When you get to the ceiling (or rafters,
depending upon whether you have a "finished ceiling", the wires go opposite
directions around the room until the almost meet opposite the "feed line".
Keep them several inches apart at least and insulate those ends! (They'll be
very hot with RF and you don't want to promote excessive losses). Small bits
of plastic will do, or just use some plastic monofilament fishing line for
the last few inches to a push-pin holder. Staples, pushpins, whatever you
have handy are good for holding my wire. My favorite are push-pins with a
loop of antenna wire around each pin.
You can use the balun in your MFJ for "balanced feed" but it'll probably
work as well (or better!) if you simply hook one side of the feeder to the
tuner case and the other side to the single wire feed terminal (or the coax
center pin, which will take a banana plug FB).
Ignoring the balun might be better than trying for "balanced feed" because
under many conditions those baluns can be very, very lossy!
IF it's a concrete/steel building, that same system might work well too, but
the concrete/steel might show high losses too. I'd try to get outdoors with
the radiating half at least. Perhaps something out the window. Hang a wire
down toward the ground that you can pull up and stow when you're not
operating. Put a weight on the end so it'll hang straight and try not to
bonk the C.O. on the head with the thing. Run a wire along the floor for
your "ground". A 1/4 wave wire for each band is best. You can put 'em on the
wall or around the baseboard, etc.
Ron AC7AC
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