That's all good info Paul, but with the aid of some ferrite cores and
the like I plan to steer clear of any possible signal entering the
local wiring.

After I've been on the air for a bit, if I find that I'm not causing
any problems, I may run another rig I have (Yaesu ft-857D) and
use a bit more power.

In the meantime, I just want to get a signal out and see what
I can do with 5 watts and assorted attempts at balcony verticals
and later magnetic loops.

Another interesting thing is how I can feed the antenna through
the door to the balcony. I can't drill holes, but I currently have
a piece of RG-58 squeezed through the closeddoor. Every day I
check to see if anything has happened to it such as migration of
the center conductor to the point where it shorts to the sheild.
I've only been here for a week, but so far so good. I am aware
that there may be an impedance bump, but I'm not at all
concerned -- if I can get one or two watts ERP I'll be more
than happy. My earliest Elmer/Mentor, VE7YY, used to run a half
watt homebrew rig and got all over the place with it although
I think that his tower and beam helped a wee bit!

I'm not desperate, but nearly so, and anxious to get on the
air again. It might take a bit of time, but I hope all the
ideas I have put into setting up the system will work right
the first time. We had a touch of snow last week, and I'm
getting a little beyond the point of enjoying antenna work
outdoors in the winter.

Irv VE6BP

"Paul Drahn" wrote in message
...
On 10/4/2013 8:48 PM, Irv Finkleman wrote:
I wonder how much difference it would make if I were to
build a loading coil on a piece of 3''x3" wood? It would be
very easy and I could suspend the winding above the wood
form with plastic dowel glued on each corner of the wood.

I could also make a similar coil using PVC pipe. Even in that
case the winding would have a somewhat rectangular form
factor.

It wouldn't be air core considering that it would be over
wood (dry and waterproofed) or PVC pipe.

I do require the structure be relatively strong or I
would wind the coil, put epoxy glue strips along it
to make it like AirDux and the like.

Any comments or suggestions??

Irv VE6BP







Interesting postings. An old friend of mine, Don, K7hsj, and his wife
recently moved to an assisted living center in Bend, Oregon. He was very
concerned about still being able to get on the air. He approached the
management about a wire from their third floor apartment to a pine tree
several hundred feet away. They were very enthusiastic about his
continuing ham operation and agreed to help if they could. Several of
Don't friends from Bend helped get the wire up.

I suggested that since the building was fairly new, they probably used
steel studs to partition the rooms and they all had to be connected to the
electrical ground wire of the building wiring. So he used the screw in the
center plate of an outlet cover as ground.

His 75 meter signal is MUCH louder than when he was at home with a dipole
antenna. He got an auto tuner and works most HF bands, now.

So, to make a long story short, try the electrical outlet ground for your
rig. It may work fine for you, also.

73 and good luck
Paul, KD7HB