Base Apartment Life: Dipole or Vertical

[TheRATT]

Ok, my 9-year old is really getting bitten by the radio bug and we only have a mobile right now. It is a great mobile but I think it is time to have a rig in the apartment.

I've made them work before, with a vice grip on a metal railing and a 108" SS whip.

I'm on the bottom floor currently, with some trees in our "back yard". I'm thinking a dipole may be the best option here?

What can I expect in "loss" when talking with locals as far as polarization goes? I can't get up into the trees but I can certainly throw some line up there and draw the dipole up higher than I can ever hope to get a vertical.

Pros and cons?

 

[HomerBB]

You can have a vertical dipole in the tree very easily.
I used to carry a coaxial dipole around with me in my car so I could throw a line into the tree branches and hoist it up using my mobile as a base station when I did handyman work in a rural environment. It was simple, and worked as well as any 1/2 wave vertical at the same height. Made from a single coax at the opposite end from the radio it was light and easy.
The attached image shows how it is made:



I made a loop at the end of the coax center conductor and pulled it up from that loop with Mason's cord.
Make the upper conductor longer than necessary, ~9', and fold it back on itself to tune for best SWR.

 

[sp5it]

Polarisation mismatch on local talk is about 30dB. You need vertically polarised antenna.

 

[TheRATT]

You can have a vertical dipole in the tree very easily.
I used to carry a coaxial dipole around with me in my car so I could throw a line into the tree branches and hoist it up using my mobile as a base station when I did handyman work in a rural environment. It was simple, and worked as well as any 1/2 wave vertical at the same height. Made from a single coax at the opposite end from the radio it was light and easy.
The attached image shows how it is made:

View attachment 35324

I made a loop at the end of the coax center conductor and pulled it up from that loop with Mason's cord.
Make the upper conductor longer than necessary, ~9', and fold it back on itself to tune for best SWR.

Is this just any old cable you used (cable TV or RG?)

 

[kopcicle]

Is this just any old cable you used (cable TV or RG?)

That is a whole conversation

check PM

 

[HomerBB]

Is this just any old cable you used (cable TV or RG?)

I used RG58 at the time. It needed about 18' of one end of the cable and the remainder was the feedline to my vehicle. A 50' coax is what I used.
However, a 75 Ohm A/V cable can be used bearing in mind that an anticipated SWR of ~1.5:1 should be expected when the dipole is tuned to resonance. I have used 75 Ohm coax many times on 11m and other HF bands successfully for years.
I do recommend the 50 Ohm coax for this in order to keep the fewest variables in play when tuning the length.

 

[2NC995]

The problem with building an antenna from off-the-shelf 75ohm TV coax is most of the shield is foil, very little braid to work with.

It’ll work as a feedline, however.

 

[Riverman]

This fella used hamsticks but two Mobile CB antennas will work just as well. Easy peasy.

 

[TheRATT]

I used RG58 at the time. It needed about 18' of one end of the cable and the remainder was the feedline to my vehicle. A 50' coax is what I used.
However, a 75 Ohm A/V cable can be used bearing in mind that an anticipated SWR of ~1.5:1 should be expected when the dipole is tuned to resonance. I have used 75 Ohm coax many times on 11m and other HF bands successfully for years.
I do recommend the 50 Ohm coax for this in order to keep the fewest variables in play when tuning the length.

I have 100' of RG58 that will be quite suitable! Thanks for the idea - I think this may actually give us some range rather than a vertical mounted as high as I can based on what little height I can get off the ground!

 

[Radiohobbyist]

Idea for a dipole feedpoint: Drill holes in a bottlecap, thread in dipole legs and feedline, solder, and backfill with hot-melt glue.

 

[Slowmover]

My son lives in a third-floor apartment of a four-story. A very wide interior corner balcony on a building completely surrounding a courtyard.

(The parking garage roof is open to use. Directional, but quite high and unobstructed. Mobile is already covered).

A balcony antenna such as the MFJ 1622 — a balcony-rail affixed telescoping whip — is first thought. And since the OP mentioned this as “type” in first post — with the thread title in mind — is it the best option? (Others searching this topic will find this thread on first search).

The balcony is covered. Five feet or so of depth outwards from wall. Straight line corner-to-corner across a curved expanse is at least 20’.

An 11-meter dipole “fits” under ceiling and across space, but the height isn’t more than 9’.

And that TX/RX from a building courtyard seems unlikely to be any good at all even were a dipole “camouflaged” and hung “exterior” across the balcony space. Something simply hung downwards (is the other), but with an apartment above and two below, it’d have to be after dark and limited in time of use.

Even a set of ears would be a good start.

I’ve asked him to consider moving to a northwards-facing, exterior-exposure apartment where LOS is from a third or fourth-story suite as that seems the only solution.

Still, . . . .

What antenna experiments would you try?

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