apartment life - low power low profile

[AF5CC]

You should _never_ tell your neighbors that you're a ham!

Brown-paper wrapping on boxes, 26-gauge antenna wire -- all that will keep you away from:

. . . My washing machine doesn't work, and it's _your fault_!

.         Charles

PS -- there is another side to this argument -- possible enthusiasm about "You can communicate without the phone system?"

Put up the antenna and then wait a week before getting on the air.  Don't even unpack the rig during that week.  When the RFI complaints start during that week, have them come in to see the rig in an unopened box, with nothing hooked to the antenna.

73 John AF5CC

[W5WSS]

Well good rapport with your neighbors is nice but in our modern world of privacy it is very possible that neighbors are incommunicado. I would not upset the Apple cart with them  when no introductions have been established.
I would if I were in your shoes proceed to install your station following good antenna safety practices.
There are reasonable antenna installations for balconies and even indoor versions.
You can enjoy some reasonable operations involving transmitting 100 watts Pep or less safely.
Check for exposure limitations for uncontrolled criteria meet those requirements and interference issues will likely be non problematic relative to enforcement or no fault of yours.
Caution apartment management likes to press on you if somebody complains of your disturbing their peace. Debateable. but they simply inform you to stop or face eviction!
I think that is unreasonable but they take the easy route.
Good luck. Stealth is best.

[KC9FJE]

I can relate to your situation. I've been relatively inactive since I joined the air force in 08' and don't have my parents' nice country house and tower to use. My current setup is an Icom 7200 into a super antenna MP-1 that's clamped to a bedframe in my spare bedroom. It's not pretty and far from optimal but I've logged some decent 10M PSK DX (5040 miles from South Georgia to Argentina last week) with this setup.

Gigaparts has the Ic-7200's for the cheapest i've seen and about $1200 you can get the rig, power supply, and antenna. I splurged and got the AT100ProII tuner and multicam option of color. It'll get you on 40m-6m out of the box if you go this route, just have to pickup the usb cable (same as a printer cable) and hook up your computer for digital ops.

73 KC9FJE