Looking for antenna suggestions.

[WA2ELZ]

My beloved wife, decided to rip up my HF2V 40 foot vertical antenna to make room for an outside patio, OUCH!! Unfortunately there is no other spot on my property that is useful for ground radials. Power lines (14 KV) run along my back yard property line, too close to the power lines for back yard antenna. There is narrow space (10 feet) to adjacent neighboring property lines, one house has a metal roof, and the front yard is FORBIDDEN by the City. Otherwise I have no HOA crap to put up with. I do have VHF and UHF TV antennas mounted on a 40 foot telescoping mast. This would be a good location for a vertical antenna, but no way to run ground radials; besides it may act as a HF resonator and mess up an HF vertical antenna. Finding space for a tower is far simpler than finding an area suitable for ground radials. However, my property is in a high wind area alongside the east coast of south Florida; towers could be problematic.
Is the Gap Challenger antenna a reasonable replacement for the HF2V? I do have room on my screened in back porch roof; it's about 10 feet above ground, on a flat 14 foot x 12 foot area. Guy ropes, 120 degree pattern, could be attached to the fascia boards.
Suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[WT3O]

Wouldn't it be easier to just get a new wife? 

All kidding aside, re-read your city's zoning ordinance carefully. I know many municipalities prohibit antennas in the front yard, but some have exemptions for "wires of a minimum gauge" (ie: dipoles, G5RV, etc...) because they are barely visible.

Another option might be a flagpole antenna for your front yard? If you have the room for radials I don't see why it wouldn't work, unless your city bans flag poles in your front yard.

73 de WT3O

[N4UM]

The Florida "flagpole law" trumps local HOA rules and city/county ordinances.  In Florida you are permitted to place a flagpole of up to 20 feet in length ANYWHERE (front, back, side etc.) on your property - provided it is NOT on an easement.  Check out my "flagpole" installation at my QRZ.com page.

[K0ZN]

Hi.

Sounds like plan B is to sit down with the XYL and RE-negotiate some things !  Tell her if she gets to choose what goes in the backyard, you get to
decide what goes in the family room and you want a new table saw in there !!   ....chuckle....  If you are paying the mortgage, I WOULD "re-negotiate" !!

Seriously.... I seriously doubt that some agents from the Vice Squad or city zoning dept. would ever come by and bust you for the antenna in the
front yard, particularly if you hung a flag from it.....or wrap a bunch of fake plastic vines around it!  My guess is that they have bigger fish to fry.....  
I am sure there is nothing in the Florida statutes that makes it a felony to have an antenna.
If you have trees in the front yard, I would consider hanging some kind of wire antenna made from  #18 copperweld. Leave the stuff on the ground for a few days and put a little water on it now and then to oxidize the shiny wire to dull before you put it up. The odds of anybody noticing that is very low. Keep in mind that if someone does get the city involved, the worst that will happen is that they will ask you to take it down......  you won't be sentenced to 8 years in the state correctional facility for an antenna "violation". With government it is a LOT easier to get forgiveness than permission !! Do some serious research on stealth and wire antennas that would be hard to see.
Odds are very high you can come up with something that works well.

73,  K0ZN

[WA2ELZ]

Thanks to all who replied. I appreciate the antenna flag pole suggestion. N4UM's antenna is very aesthetic, nice job.
I have modeled for 14.2 MHZ the flag pole antenna and half a wave vertical antenna for comparison using NEC2 and 4NEC geometry editors. No loading coil or other attempts of tuning was tried. Only the length of the vertical was changed using genetic evolution techniques. The object was to answer the question of ground radials influence on a halfwave antenna.
My current conclusion is that ground radials make no difference as compared with a quarter wave with 16 ground radials.


Flag pole antenna: 16 1/4 wave ground radials, no loading coil.
vertical gain - vertical plane
Radiation Efficiency: 30%
Gain: 0.02 dbi
SWR: 1.62
length:  0.25 wave length

Half wave vertical antenna (almost a full wave after optimization), no ground radials.
vertical gain - vertical plane
Radiation efficiency: 29%
Gain: 1.16 dbi
SWR: 1.52
Length: 0.9283 wave length

Nothing more than a first run of genetic evolution was tried. I am sure both antennas will yield better results with more optimization.
In my case I can find room for a halfwave or even full wave antenna with out ground radials, but not a quarter wave antenna with ground radials.