At our old condo the loop loops like a covered piece of furniture. |
- most likely you are in a highly populated area with other large condo's around you.
- very small foot print for an antenna.
- In some cases the condo unit is small which limits your space for the ham radio "stuff".
Well now that I have you listing your radio on QRZ.COM for sale lets look at some of the advantages of being in a condo.
- In most cases you are high up as for me in one condo I was 60 feet up and in this one I am 160 feet up.
- Your balcony as most are made of metal make a good ground plane for some antennas.
- Your ham skills are challenged with regards to antennas, power output and mode of operation.
OK the last two points above I was really stretching for some positives but for sure height is in most cases a major advantage.
In this post lets look at some antennas that may work from a balcony. The antenna I use as you may already know if you are a regular reader of my blog is the MFJ 1788 mag loop. Now I have had many comments as well as emails saying that the mag loop is pricey. It's very true it is and most mag loops are not cheap as I also have the Chameleaon CHA P loop 2.0 mag loop for portable op's which also is a pricey antenna. I did save my pennies and spent some coin on the MFJ 1788 and not to turn this post into a review of MFJ but quality is not noted on the Eham review site with regards to most MFJ products. I did have a small issue with my loop but I repaired it and since that time (6 years ago) the loop has given me no issues at all. In no way am I saying that the mag loops are the only way to go.
A very unique looking antenna that is great for balcony operation is the Isotron antennas these antennas get a very decent review on Eham and I know of a ham who uses one and has had great success with it. These antennas are small, no ground plain needed and they can be purchased as mono band or multi band. Also they really don't look like an antenna. With antenna when you want to use it you put it out and when done take it in. In the present condo I am in this is how I use my MFJ loop it's only out when I am using it.
The loop at our new location |
Depending on the size of your balcony a wire antenna dipole antenna can be used. When we were looking at condos some balcony's were huge and could support a homemade wire dipole antenna. Two antennas I have tried that did not seem to work for me is a mono whip antenna mounted vertically with pre-cut radials...did not work at all. I also could not get the MFJ 1788 to work horizontally at my new place I had to mount it vertically. I also tried mono whip antennas in a dipole configuration and it did work but way to large for the balcony.
In my next post I am going to talk about what modes of operation I found to work best for me and how it opened a new door for me in ham radio...........oh and by the way from my condo setup as I was writing this post I was able to make contact with IK4UPB on 20m.
2 comments:
Hello Mike, it is great you can get your signal out with the loop. It's so unfortunate the loop covers only part of the amateurbands. At one occasion I have been transmitting from a balcony on a vacation. I was using the superantenna MP-1 with good results. Unfortunately the MP-1 only covers limited bands although there is a extension coil available, In your situation I probabely built my own magnetic loop which would be slightly bigger to cover 80m and 60m as well. Thanks for the interesting posts...always like to see what people are working with especially in difficult situations. 73, Bas
Good afternoon Bas it's always great to hear from you, I have seen and read about the MP-1 it sounds like a great antenna but for me I prefer an antenna that I can tune from my radio desk. It's hard to have the rig in a bedroom and move to the balcony to return the antenna. I have considered building a loop but at the moment I work mostly all the time so building it just would not happen. I would like to get onto 60 and 80m BUT I will be retiring this year and we are planning on moving out of the condo and just maybe there will be the room for something to cover those bands.
Thanks for taking the time to comment Bas all the best!
73,
Mike
VE3WDM
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