Stealth antenna idea; aka is this safe/functional

[KB1JFZ]

Good Afternoon,
  Dumb question about doing a stealth antenna. I am in a rental. Nothing can be outside the house or attached to it in anyway. All the HVAC is run in the attic as well as the cable and satellite dish stuff. I was initially considering putting an antenna in the attic. But do to the fact that I travel allot and the maintenance guys would have to go up there for any problems with the HVAC I decided against it (for now anyway).
  So after reading back 18 months on this board and a few others here at eham I have come up with a possible solution and want to through it out there for some feed back. I really don’t want to zap someone due to my poor planning….
  I am renting a single story 40X70 brick house.  I plan to run a 14 gauge insulated wire around the house tucked up against the house in the plastic eaves molding. I will have the end just peeking out above the window in the shack. There will be a small nail there from with to hang a balun. I will than run another line to the chain link fence that closes in my back yard, and attaches to that of the neighbors.
  The plan is to open the window and pass the feed cable and balun outside. I will hang the balun from the small nail. I will use the alligator clips I attached to the balun dipole leads to the roof wire and the wire leading to the chain link fence.
  Does this sound plausible and safe for people and equipment?

Thanks!
Dave
KB1JFZ

[WB6BYU]

1) don't bother with a balun - your antenna isn't balanced anyway.

2) use thinner wire.  #22 stranded hookup wire, or even #28 magnet wire, will work as well
and be harder for anyone to see (especially if the insulation color matches the paint.)

3) tucking it under the shingles across the roof may get you more effective height than
running a wire around the eaves.    Getting it on the outside edge of the eaves rather
than against the house gives you a bit more clearance from the bricks.  But do whatever
you can manage in your situation.

4) Running a wire down to the fence won't give you a reliable ground.  Chain link fences
have a lot of poor connections that aren't well bonded together.  But the main problem is
the length of the wire - if it is 12' long to reach the fence, it won't act like a ground at
all on 20m and higher frequencies.  A better approach may be to provide a quarter wave
radial for each band of interest that is NOT connected to anything at the far end.

5) Depending on the type of window, you may be able to use a thin strip of copper to
connect the antenna through the window sill even with the window closed.  That would
enable you to operate in winter without opening the window.

[KB1JFZ]

Thanks for the fast reply!  I put it up as you suggested with less than good results. I need to check everything tomorrow afternoon to see if i missed something since i am not getting any signal at all.

I tucked one wire up under the shingles after it got dark and left a few inches dangle that I can attach an aligator clip to from my coax run. I than ran a radial about 18" off the ground directly under the roof.

[WB6BYU]

...I need to check everything tomorrow afternoon to see if i missed something since i am not getting any signal at all.

Not getting any signal at all is usually a sign of a bad connection rather than a poor antenna.
Even with 20dB of loss you should still hear signals across some band if it is open.

[KB1JFZ]

Thanks. It must have been a bad connection. I rehooked everything up and i have fair reception on 20 and 40 meters. It is a lttle bit of a pain hooking and tearing down eachnight, but worth it in the long run. If i can find a place to put the picks and link to i will.

  Great idea about placing the wire under the leadong edge of the shingles!

[WX7G]

An expensive antenna tuner, such as the MFJ-901B at $100, and some wire and you are on the air. You can experiment and see what you like. Try two wires inside the house (like a dipole) from the tuner balanced jacks. Try wires outside as you plan. They will all work and get you contacts.

[W0NTS]

Try this idea: Use the rain gutter as your antenna. However if one or more downspouts touch the ground, they will have to be insulated from the ground. Also if the rain gutter is not one continuos length but is made up of sections, the sections will have to be solidly bonded together. For bonding the gutter sections together, try stainless steel sheet metal screws or aluminum pop rivets. You may have to bridge the gutter joints with short wire jumpers. for a ground, use the cold water pipe, providing it is not plastic. Attach your ground wire where the water service enters the building. An alternative ground could be an insulated length of wire buried about an inch deep around the perimeter of the house. Another alternative for a ground would be to use an MFJ 931 artificial ground. If you do not have an antenna tuner, something on the order of the MFJ 16010 200W random wire tuner would probably suffice. When it comes to stealth antennas, innovation is the key to success. LOL  W0NTS

[KB1JFZ]

W0NTS; both down spouts touch the ground. Thanks for the suggestion though. I may look at the gutter-tenna if I dont have luck with the long wire.

WX7G; I am using an Z-11 pro autotunner. I am trying to get the receive down before I transmit though. I everything set up and am getting signal. I am now working on using the rigblaster pro through my computer. I tried to set it up a few years ago when I first got it, but had no luck and got side tracked by work.

Thanks for all the great suggestions!

[W3HKK]

a friend uses a gutter antenna.  It works and is better than nothing.  Any indoor antenna  invites rf all over the place however.  But you do hat you can do.

[KB4QAA]

JFZ:
Just want to be absolutely clear:  One end of the antenna wire connects to the center of the coax and the other end connects to the shield/braid.

[KA4NMA]

You should try window line instead of coax.  And try a balanced antenna tuner instead of a line smoother like the LDG models.  They only work with a swr of 10:1 or less.

[AE6ZW]

my stealth antenna has more to do with Mode I use ( CW ) , I notice I have too much noise for wider band width SSB, because of indoor antenna.  but, with narrow CW band filter, noise decrease significantly.   I wanted to operate on SSB, but I was forced to use CW, and after I used for a while and getting better copying it.  Now, I mainly operate CW.  CW is best for HAM with limited antenna and power level. I contacted most of US with my indoor antenna.