Thursday, September 26, 2013

Our move prep is taking away from ham time!

I HATE painting..so we hired a painter
There has not been very much radio time here and I sure do miss the hobby time! I have been removing wall paper, painting.....well we have decided to hire a painter for the job as I HATE painting and take way to long to get it done. For me it would take about 4-6 days to get the job done. The painter is coming next Friday and ONE day and it's done.  Because we are downsizing to a condo it also means that certain things in the shack have to be downs sized as well. I have sold my DX-EE antenna, H-800 receiving antenna, LDG 6 position antenna
Getting ready to take the sub out
switch and my beloved sub-receiver in my Elecraft K3. The sale of these items netted me around 1,000 and will help with the new challenge of an antenna for the condo. Well now lets talk about the up and coming condo shack! There are going to be challenges but also some advantages as well. I am excited that this will still be a QRP shack and antenna challenged....BUT....I will have more height than I have ever had in the past and that is a huge plus!! Now that I will be in the city I am also going to have more noise trouble. This will for sure give my MFJ noise cancelling uint a workout.  We will have a balcony, in the summer will be great for sitting out and using the KX3 with
and at this point I am not sure if I want to have an antenna out on the balcony or not (like the MFJ magnetic loop antenna) I would like to have an antenna in the radio room and not outside as condo's are not antenna
The Sub is gone...:(
Room prepped for painting
friendly and it being outside the weather would take have an affect on it. .....Now a stealth wire antenna on the balcony is also an option. I just love these challenges!! Hey blog crowd any ideas about a stealth wire antenna from 10m to lets say 40m???????

6 comments:

Dick said...

Hi Mike. Are plants and balcony furniture permitted? How about something like that motorized short vertical you once had. But in a flower-pot with a real/artificial vine crawling up it. Put other plants or short bushes out there, too. Or a large, open umbrella. The type that is usually found in the center of a table. Enlarge the center hole in the table to also allow the vertical as well as umbrella. You probably wouldn't want anything attached to a balcony railing extended out as that could prove dangerous.

Up so high, don't understand why the fuss from the condo-cops.

73 Dick

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hi Mike, it totally depends on your balcony. What is allowed, what not. I think I would go for that magnetic loop as you probabely have too much interference from neighbours appliances when using a wire antenna. Good luck! I keep an eye on your blog. 73, Bas

VE9KK said...

Good morning Dick, yes we are allowed to have plants on the deck and I too was thinking of another screw driver type antenna. We are not permitted to have umbrellas so that idea is out. The balcony is glass and to have something hanging out would be "look at me" type of thing and that would not be good at all. As for the condo cops they really need to get a hobby.
Thanks for the great suggestions Dick and I will be posting the details of how things are coming.
Mike

VE9KK said...

Good evening Bas, as for the balcony yes I am going to have to wait and see what we get and then have a good look at the options. The magnetic loop would be good and I would be temped to keep it indoors and see how it works from there. My best plan would be to get a hold of magnetic loop to try it out. This things are not cheap and I don't want to drop the cash for it not to work.
Mike
Mike

Anonymous said...

Hello Mike

I would agree with Bas that a magnetic loop would likely be the most suitable antenna, its certainly worked well for me in similar situations. I understand about the cost though but it would be pretty easy to build one using some spare UR67 or similar and a RX type variable capacitor to see if a loop would work in your new condo.

In general the voltage rating of such variable capacitors is around 750 volts so QRP levels should probably be OK to test the idea before spending the money on something like the MFJ loops

Best of luck

Kevin G6UCY

Bert, PA1B said...

Hello Mike, I would say:take care of all important things first. The radio will wait. Once your are moved, even a QSO on a simple antenna wil be a trill. hi. So take your time. 73, Bert