[Elecraft] RE: ridge vent as antenna?

[Dale Putnam]

A while ago, with new bride, one child, and a burning need to get on the 
air.. in a rented house... in a neighborhood that had rf haters... (tv sets 
that waited for the joy to pounce upon a piece of unsuspecting rf scooting 
by, like a starved cat on a mouse)... I found myself wanting a good dx 
antenna and condx were such that 40 would be just about right. So.... up 
went a #40 wire dipole...
next day: down went the dipole... victim to a low flying bird... or 
wind...so... up went an end fed
#40 wire, in a different direction, and somewhat protected from flying 
animals... I thought.
Wrong! this time, bride mentioned that the spiderweb over the clothes line 
just wasn't going to work out well. She was right... it didn't... either for 
her or me.
  Somewhat square house.... one story high.... not a flat roof, but pretty 
much ok to walk on...
how do you get a vertical up there without being seen... no the street 
lights were too bright too.
Besides... standing a flag pole on your roof was outta the question. ... 
WAIT!!
What? A downspout... and it was just outside the window of the hamshack 
too... yep and metal too. But how do you cut a gutter to seperate it from 
the downspo... vertical?  tape measure in hand... can't believe it... no.. 
it can't be... yep.. sure is.. the gutter was a half wave long on 40. AND... 
another downspout too... WOW this is wild... how lucky can I be? A pair of 
verticals on 40...
Someone named Bob with a short behind made one of these right?   It worked 
too... rather nicely... but... oh no... sure enuff... there was another pair 
of them on the other side of the house...
Now... I am in fat city.. two Bob's window covers.... WOW... then... then 
just a bit more thought... and walking around..... and get the tape out... 
two more pieces of wire... across the roof... and it becomes a ... a ....... 
square for.... a square for....  well sure silly... a square for working 40 
mter dx.   And it DiD too.! Very nicely... and pretty much to the shagrin of 
all the tv sets it did it without detection too.   Except for one old tv.... 
that would not give up... was very good a catching rf... it was... but that 
is another story... for another time.

There is always a way.. sometimes we just don't see it for the way we think 
we want.

--...   ...--
Dale - WC7S qrp in Wy.. were the pavement ends and the West begins..
and rf usually doesn't have much of a problem launching... there ain't no 
trees.





>From: "Lanier, Robert" <rlanier at harris.com>
>To: <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
>Subject: [Elecraft] RE: ridge vent as antenna?
>Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 07:45:47 -0500
>
>
> >   Has anyone had any experience using ridge vents as antenna
> > (or part of an antenna)? Effect of rain wetting the roof
> > shingles?  Comments??
> >
> >   73
> >   Ray K2HYD
> >
>
>Ray,
>
>Another possibility for overcoming your limitation is to use weather
>balloons to loft your antenna:  http://www.allsopp.co.uk/
>They have many different sizes of balloons to choose from. You could
>easily use a vertical antenna, and raise it several hundred feet without
>a problem. Just make sure you're not too close to an airport.....
>
>Tony  K4YYZ
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