Jim,

When the bands are "normal" does your antenna work pretty well?

I bet the antenna wire isn't noticed unless someone points it out.

I bet more apartment dwellers could do something similar, but the mention of 
an antenna congers up big unsightly monstrosities, so we don't even get a 
chance to show that the wire from the building to a tree or from building to 
building wouldn't be noticed.

Many antennas are not as ugly as power lines, huge signs or even light poles 
in the parking lot.

73

Howard #3


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Gammon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2012 11:14 AM
Subject: Re: apartment dwelling antennas


> Hi Howard, the Pvc pipes are mounted on existing vent pipes on
> the roof of each building.  The antenna has a kind of print l
> shape to it because I ran out of room to go straight so it
> required 3 pieces of PVC as well as the center feedpoint on the
> vertical pole which comes up from ground level between the two
> buildings.  Might as well have no antenna right now because I
> can't even hear any of the WWV signals, just a whole lot of
> noise! Jim
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Howard, W A 9 Y B W" <[log in to unmask]
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date sent: Tue, 17 Jul 2012 10:38:01 -0500
> Subject: Re: apartment dwelling antennas
>
> Hi Jim,
>
> Just curious, how did you mount the 5 foot lengths of PVC to the
> building
> and where did you mount them?
>
> 73
>
> Howard #3
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jim Gammon" <[log in to unmask]
> To: <[log in to unmask]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2012 10:27 AM
> Subject: Re: apartment dwelling antennas
>
>
> The Alpha 1 and Mp-1 are supposed to work on 80 to 6 meters.
> The
> philosophy or approach for each is different.  The interesting
> thing about the Alpha is that the matchbox is supposed to do all
> the work other then your tuner, so you don't have to go out and
> physically change the antenna length when you change bands.  But
> I think you lose some efficiency as a result of that.  So
> there's
> no getting around the fact that small antennas are just going to
> be compromises no matter how you cut it.  I am really lucky
> here.
> Also living in an apartment, I asked the landlord if I could put
> up a Shortwave antenna and he said sure, long as it doesn't mess
> up the visual quality of the building.  I have a Windom that
> uses
> a couple of 5 foot PVC pipes to support the wire about 4 to 5
> feet above the roof.  The feed point is on a pole with a
> vertical
> for 2 and 70 centimeters that is attached to a clothes line pole
> down between two apartment buildings if that makes any sense.
> Jim