Dipole on the living room carpet?

[Bundy]

If I start up a base again I am forced to use a dipole antenna. (which I have no experience with) From everything I have read the preferred location is to string it up in the attic. I'm on the first level of a 2-story apt. building so that is not an option. Could I just lay the dipole down against the wall and hide it behind the couch and desk? I would imagine this would not work at all but this is my last resort. Thanks.

 

[9deuce]

give it a shot i use to have one in the house but pc's tvs had issues with RFI with that said id find a way to mount it corner to corner if thats possible in the room your setting it up i ran mine inverted v on the wall for a year and it did well on a barefoot rig i could talk to the truck stops 2 and 4 miles down the road

i used a picture hanger on the center of the wall cliped the apex to it ran the legs down corner to corner and made contacts AFTER TUNED IT just experiment with it its the best way to find out how it wants to be setup in the house for example the wall on the inner most part of the house would not get out but the wall next to outter part of the house did i dont know why hope you get it goin and have fun

 

[RatsoW8]

If you were on the 2nd floor it may work somewhat but don't expect much if anything out of it on the bottom floor on the floor. Off the floor would be the better choice.

 

[Beercanman]

If the dipole is touching or very close to anything you will get a lot of reflect that will show as high SWR. Your best shot at making it work would be to string it vertically across a room as close to the center of the room as possible. If there are brick or cinder block walls you'll pretty much be wasting your time though.

 

[2RT307]

Do you have a patio? That's where I'd put it. It will work strung along the ceiling though... I've done that in the past and talked both locally and DX on it.

73,
RT307

 

[Bundy]

Do you have a patio? That's where I'd put it. It will work strung along the ceiling though... I've done that in the past and talked both locally and DX on it.

73,
RT307

Thanks to everyone for the replies! I do have a patio but it is short, roughly 10 feet with a deck for the 2nd floor apartment above. That would actually give me some structure to attach an antenna to. Problem being it is short, maybe I should somehow disguise a vertical. I cant run feed line inside permanently, I would have to disconnect after every use, I have no problem with that though.

 

[RatsoW8]

Thanks to everyone for the replies! I do have a patio but it is short, roughly 10 feet with a deck for the 2nd floor apartment above. That would actually give me some structure to attach an antenna to. Problem being it is short, maybe I should somehow disguise a vertical. I cant run feed line inside permanently, I would have to disconnect after every use, I have no problem with that though.

The patio is your best bet and you can hang the dipole as an inverted V. n the legs don't have to be perfectly stretched out. They can droop a bit as long as the angle of the V is sufficient. The swr will tell the story there.

I was an apartment dweller for a year about 8 years ago and unless you live in a cave, the bottom floor of an apt is the worst case scenario for a radio lover.

I had a few more options being a ham so hitting 2 meter repeaters was a piece of cake from the 1st floor with a mag mount antenna on the fridge or just the HT and rubber duck.

For hf I put a Yaesu ATAS-120 with the ground plane kit on a 10 ft mast and tripod. I was in a lower corner apartment so I could sneak it out the patio door and around the back side of the building out of sight. It worked ok on 10 meters occasionally but still barely usable. So, I moved!

 

[cbradiomagazine.com]

Since you have a patio that is where to put the antenna. I've tried inside a dipole inside an apartment building and my results were very limited.

You can easily build a dipole antenna using a couple of tunable mobile antennas, I like to use the radio shack - RadioShack Stainless Steel Mobile CB Antenna : CB Radio Antennas | RadioShack.com but you can find them on ebay for like $6 a pop sometimes.

Or just buy a sirio D-27 and figure out a temporary mount for it. That antenna tunes up very well and actually has nice performance.

A stiff dipole will work way better in your setup then a wire dipole that needs two mounting points.

 

[camaro1]

you can make one of these vertical coax antenna's very easily and hang it somewhere on your patio from the upstairs neighbors deck if in an apartment, I made one for camping to hang in a tree and it works fine:

 

[W5LZ]

The best place for any antenna is away from stuff, and outdoors. Not everyone can do that so you have to do the best you can.
Laying any antenna on the floor/carpet isn't going to be very 'good', but you can do it. You shouldn't expect much from doing that though, and I think you know that. If it does 'well enough', then it's certainly better than no antenna at all, right?
Compensating is done through that 'tuning' procedure, you have to tune an antenna for where it's 'mounted', it's surroundings etc. That typically means it'll end up shorter than if it were in an 'ideal' mounting location, but don't count on it.. That just means you have to tune an antenna 'as it is', sort of, it won't be the same as if it were somewhere else. That's a fairly normal thing.
One solution would be to not lay it flat, but run one leg up a wall (sort of an 'L' shape). Ceiling not high enough? Well, bend the 'extra' length of one leg sideways along the ceiling. That makes it into a 'vertical' antenna which may work out better for you. Try it in several different 'shapes', see what works the best for you.
Since that antenna is indoors, meaning closer to electronic thingys in your and your neighbor's apartments, don't be surprised if there are interference complaints. Ain' that a pleasant thought? Oh well...
Good luck.
- 'Doc

(I've made a few spelling corrections and I'm tired of it. If it's spelled wrong it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.)

 

[dc2rf]

Since that antenna is indoors, meaning closer to electronic thingys in your and your neighbor's apartments, don't be surprised if there are interference complaints. Ain' that a pleasant thought? Oh well...
Good luck.
- 'Doc

Oh yea! And it works just the same in reverse, which means all the digital noise from the neighbors (and your own) will haunt your receiver also. I've been there... antennas in a "confined space because of my location". All you can do, is do your best to find the best location in a bad situation.

Btw, Imho, the best antenna in your situation is a small transmitting loop. Very efficient and a small "footprint". On 11m the loop would be real small. Most folk don't want to go "there" because it'll be more work than stringing up a few wires. You'll have to roll up your sleeves, do some study, gather materials, but in the end you'll learn a whole lot and have a better antenna to boot. Here's just one link to look at if you consider it.

kk5jy.net/magloop/

fucimin.altervista.org/en/loop.html

Your choice.

best wishes and good dx.

 

[vkrules]

Patio or out a window is the way to go you want to be as high and in the clear as you can get.What about the dipole camaro1 described mounted on a fiberglass telescopic fishing pole. extend it out when you want to use it. Mag loop is another good idea ,as suggested,but not an easy ant for a beginner to make. Quad loop is another , make it out of 1.2 m single strand copper corner feed it and string it up with fishing line ,almost invisible from 20 ft. Get creative buy a roll of copper and start experimenting.

 

[dc2rf]

Mag loop is another good idea ,as suggested,but not an easy ant for a beginner to make... Get creative buy a roll of copper and start experimenting

Reconsidering, first get something up easy and quick, like a vertical dipole or the quad loop. When you're already up and running, you'll have plenty of time to study antennas like the mag loop, and you could learn and construct it at your leisure. Like vkrules said, get creative and start experimenting. That's where the real fun is.

p.s. I mentioned the little loop because it's amazing that such a small antenna, when properly designed, can put out such a good signal. Gives you something to consider later.

 

[2RT307]

conifers4, can you post a pic of your patio? Several of the options listed here might work better for you. if your patio is only 10 feet wide, then yeah, you're short for a horizontal dipole. However, as one poster mentioned, you could run the vertical part up to your neighbors patio, then L the bottom portion under your patio, and have a 1/4 wave vertical. Another option mentioned... you might also be able to make an 11 meter loop and use 75 ohm coax to match, and just loop it around the perimeter of your patio. If you can post some pics, we could really help point you in the right direction for best performance.

73,
RT307

 

[n3umw]

I agree with the small loop idea. Something else you could try is hidden coax running to a screw in a rain water drain pipe and a tuner. Load up the drain pipe and hope it has a decent connection to the roof.

The drain pipe and any other 1st floor antenna will probably be pretty noisy on RX. Also probably cause interference on TX so you might be limited to transmitting late in the evenings. The loop would be much quieter on RX and maybe even TX.

You could also run wire around the perimeter of the outside wall and feed it to a tuner with twin-lead. The loop size does not matter as long as you are feeding it with twin lead or pretty short coax. This one would also be quieter on RX.

The horizontal and loop would be directional, the vertical would be omni.

What are the outside walls made of, brick? If metal, you are in trouble.

At 4 watts you can build a cheap tuner using the same tuning caps used in transistor radios. Search for QRP tuner plans.