[Elecraft] ridge vent as antenna?

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Ray K2HYD wrote:

We just bought a second home, which is lovely (definition: my wife is
thrilled with it!) but has restrictive covenants - no outside antennas.
Grrr.
   
  I have mounted an ATU in the attic and attached a 1:1 balun directly to
it, with about 25 ft of wire going out from each side - in other words, a
non-resonant dipole - all inside the attic. It loads OK on all bands 80 thru
10 and I've made several decent contacts with it.
   
  What I don't like is that there is a lot of junk in the attic, like AC
ductwork, tho most of it seems non-metallic. Mostly I don't like the
aluminum ridge vent that runs the length of the attic - so I mounted the
wire several feet below the ridge of the roof. Not sure how this affects the
antenna, but it can't be very good.
   
  I am contemplating using the ridge vent as part of the antenna: I could
position the ATU at one end of the attic, connect one side to the ridge vent
and the other side to a stealth wire that I could run to a low tree or maybe
the peak of the garage roof. 
   
  Has anyone had any experience using ridge vents as antenna (or part of an
antenna)? Effect of rain wetting the roof shingles?  Comments??

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If your radiator is only a few feet from the ridge vent, it is already part
of the antenna. At that range you're inducing a lot of current into it as a
"parasitic element". 

Shingles are good. I've had a number of attic doublets (center fed antennas
of whatever length that would fit) that were very successful running QRP
into them, even with attics full of AC ducts, etc. I saw no difference in
performance, shingles wet or dry. (Now, some concrete tiles in one QTH were
a completely different story...)

But why bother to hook up to it? Why not simply use your wire to wherever
you can reach as 1/2 of a doublet with the other half inside the attic. You
can bend the attic half as needed to make up the length of the outdoor
section just for a shot at symmetry. Of course it won't be really
symmetrical, electrically, but it will be a doublet and it will load and it
will likely do significantly better than an all-indoor antenna. 

Ron AC7AC