Inside HF Antennas

[abearden]

Any models / designs you've had good luck with inside? Don't have all that much room in the attic, but not opposed to stringing it up in the living room (bachelor life! :thumbs.

Inherited an Icom IC-740 HF rig (along with some dual band mobile and HT radios) when I visited grandma after Moab. Going to make a second push at my General and/or Extra since I've been lazy. Figured I'll wander around listening on the HF bands until then.

 

[DJinCO]

If you can find an old "slinkey" the kid's toy. The metal kind, not the plastic ones, then you could try stringing that up in your attic. Lots of possibilities. Some folks even use the metal gutters. HF is pretty forgiving.

 

[LagunaH1]

To be blunt: I have had real crappy luck with *anything* indoors.

What's your roof made of? Any metal mesh in your roof or walls? If so then you are, like me, living inside a faraday cage which will pretty much kill your signal

One of the few compact HF antennas that work somewhat reasonably are magnetic loops. They are expensive to buy but if you google around a bit you will probably find lots of descriptions of how to build your own. Still, you will get better results the higher up and away from the building your antenna is.

Do you have a patio? If so, think about a vertical... especially if your patio is on the 2nd floor or higher

 

[abearden]

Stucco with clay tile roofing. I don't know if there's chicken wire behind the stucco, but I can reach the local repeater with my HT from my living room so it can't be that much of a Faraday cage.

I do have a second story balcony with nothing above it, so I could probably get away with a vertical temporarily (gotta love HOAs).

 

[LagunaH1]

Well, it has been my experience that HF *is* really a lot more finnicky if you want to pull in signals from far away.

Here's an idea: Lay down chicken wire on the floor of your balcony, cover it with a rug or something that looks nicer and is more comfy to walk on. The chicken wire will be your counterpoise. Then set up a vertical, could be a simple as a 10 meter whip, connect each to their respective side of the coax, make sure you are resonant on, for example, 28.400 Mhz and there's your HF antenna.