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Manager - AB7RG
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Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight

Created by Scott Evans, N4ZOU on 2020-05-18

"Editor's Note: Due to the popularity of some of eHam's older articles, many of which you may not have read, the eHam.net team has decided to rerun some of the best articles that we have received since eHam's inception. These articles will be reprinted to add to the quality of eHam's content and in a show of appreciation to the authors of these articles." This article was originally published on: 07/22/2005

 

 

Hide Your HF Vertical In Plain Sight

 

So you moved into a HOA controlled property or worse, your wife won't allow an "ugly" antenna! You need to hide it but just how are you going to do that without dropping it out of sight during the daylight hours? Well my friend, you need to do a little foam and fiberglass work and produce a flag or light pole that contains your vertical antenna. Working with the blue insulation foam board available at most building supply stores is easy. You may saw it or use a hot wire cutter you can easily make yourself. Working with fiberglass cloth and resin is a little harder but it's well within the neophyte's capability to learn how to do it. If you don't want to do it all you can find help in your local area very easily. Any good boat or automotive body shop will have people with years of experience working with fiberglass and would be more than happy to take your money to produce your custom flag or light pole.

Lets start with the design requirements. Will your HOA allow a flagpole? Most people that sit on HOA boards are liberal types that like to control every aspect of your life and waving a flag (especially here in the USA) reminds them we live in a free country which limits there power and so the last thing most of them want is a reminder of that and consequently they ban blatant patriotism, flag waving, and worst of all a (horror of horrors) flag pole that could be used for the display of a flag! In these cases you will want to produce a light pole, which most HOA's will allow. In either case the production of the pole will be the same except for the "decoration" used at the top of the pole. A flagpole will have a rope and pulley system and the light pole will have a light housing and bulb.

Lets start working on the pole. You will need to make the interior of the pole hollow so your vertical antenna may be placed inside. Square tapered poles are common and for our use and this design makes construction easy. Measure your HF vertical and figure out the space requirements. Now you need some way to hold the foam in position as you construct the pole. Use the cheapest OSB or plywood obtainable or even multiple layers of cardboard will work fine to produce the required form. Below is a drawing of a form that would work just fine for producing our square tapered cavity. There will be no resin used in form so it should pull easily from the completed pole. If you're worried that some resin could infiltrate the cavity simply use wax paper around the foam supports to prevent the resin from gluing the foam supports to the foam.

0x01 graphic

If you need a round pole this is not a problem. Simply add more foam to the sides and form the foam into a round or any other shape you require. No dimensions are given as this depends on your choice of antenna. The taller your antenna the more foam supports you will need. Also the support rod is very important! After you finish the pole the support rod and foam supports must be pulled out of the cavity. If you want a monoband HF antenna you do not need to worry about making a cavity for your antenna element. Simply use some copper wire as the antenna element between foam sheets, no form required! Don't forget the required decoration for the top of the pole. Your HOA requires pre-approval of every part of your existence on your (or there?) property. Be ready to supply this information in the form of a product brochure and the placement of the pole on your property. This requires that you copy a design for your pole. Here is a very good example of a generic pole design that you could submit to the HOA or your wife.

If you get the ok for a flagpole then your pole construction effort will be easy. Here is a link to a site that has flagpole hardware and decoration.

If a flagpole and flag is not allowed then you need a light pole like the one pictured below.

0x01 graphic

Notice the square form of the lamp box. That's going to be easy to make with foam and fiberglass. I know, what about the wires and the light? There's an easy and cheap way around that problem! Don't put wires and a light in the pole! Simply get a cheap mirror and put that in the light box where the lens would normally be and place a light fixture and narrow beam floodlight pointed up at the mirror from the ground. This is a modern design and use the bulbs pictured below.

0x01 graphic

Halogen and low voltage PAR-46 bulbs.

 

Lets get back to the construction of the pole. I won't get into just how to work with fiberglass and foam, as there are plenty of sites on the Internet that go into great detail on this subject. Most of them deal with boat construction. Here is a link that details the construction of a mast for a sailboat.

0x01 graphic

That's a strong pole made of foam covered with fiberglass. Would you stand on your aluminum vertical HF antenna? If it were located inside that hollow pole you could!

Here is a site that shows some details on forming the shape of the foam and laying the fiberglass on it.

Just remember that your pole will be hollow inside if you make it to contain an antenna like a Butternut HF6V or HF9V or a Husler BT5V.

0x01 graphic

 

0x01 graphic

 

0x01 graphic

The above pictures show the development of the foam core. In this case a solid construction. Making it hollow will be just as easy except you will need the form shown earlier to hold the foam in place as you work on your pole and later add the fiberglass cloth and resin. Make sure you taper the interior cavity so when you pull the mold out it will release easily and become lose with only a small amount of travel. As for mounting the pole I would reference the flagpole supplier and use mounting hardware like that used for a factory made pole. This could be incorporated with the mount used for your vertical HF antenna.

Fiberglass products are available from many sources. Here is a link to one of the better suppliers.

Not only do they supply the fiberglass products you will need they also have information on how to use their products. It's almost a "Dummies guild to fiberglass composites" online book!

When you install your vertical in the fiberglass pole just remember the resonate frequency's will drop slightly due to the velocity factor. The performance of the antenna will be the same. It's sort of like comparing the difference between insulated and bare antenna wire. As for as the RF is concerned there is no difference.

 

SSBER2020-06-13
Re: Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
Welcome to the USA, where hatred is patriotic!
Reply to a comment by : W2WCM on 2020-06-12

Why all the anti liberal politics? One of the joys of amateur radio is that we set politics and religion aside.
W2WCM2020-06-12
Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
Why all the anti liberal politics?
One of the joys of amateur radio is that we set politics and religion aside.
N0XAS2020-06-08
Re: Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
Not just "high end gated communities". Most lenders now won't fund a new development without restrictive covenants and an HOA. This has been going on for decades. And, it seems most people either want an HOA, or don't care. When our covenants were set to expire in 2015 -- the only reason I agreed to buy the house in the first place -- the HOA managed to get enough support to extend the covenants an additional 60 YEARS. Needless to say I campaigned against it, but they got the 75% of homeowners or whatever they needed to agree to it.

If you don't have covenants where you live, good for you. Enjoy it. But not everyone is as fortunate.
Reply to a comment by : SSBER on 2020-06-06

I have always associated HOA's with high end gated communities.
SSBER2020-06-06
Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
I have always associated HOA's with high end gated communities.
WA9AFM2020-06-05
Re: Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
Texas has a very similar requirement. How can they do it? They pass a statute or do administrative rule making.
Reply to a comment by : K4RCH on 2020-06-04

"In Virginia any development of five homes or more require the builder to stand up a Homeowner's Association." Really? Can you cite the code section? Genuinely curious how the Commonwealth can mandate that.
Reply to a comment by : WD4HXG on 2020-06-04

In Virginia any development of five homes or more require the builder to stand up a Homeowner's Association. As a consequence the number of unencumbered homes in populated areas in the CommunistWealth have plunged dramatically. If you do find a home with no HOA then it is likely to have restrictive covenants in the deed and/or the land parcel large enough to push the annual real estate tax bill over $10,000.00 a year.
Reply to a comment by : WO7R on 2020-05-31

>>> Most people have heard how restrictive HOA's are, so why move into one if you like to talk on your radio? Doh! <<< In some parts of the country it is not that easy. Here in Arizona, any housing development in anything resembling a city has had an HOA attached for at least the last 20 years if not longer. How do I know? The realtor I worked with said so. I also went to enough "for sale" houses to observe it for myself. It's not a law, it's just. . .custom. If you want a development without an HOA in town it mysteriously takes forever to get the permits. Government here likes HOAs because they take pressure off of government to do things (e.g. street lights, even public parks). So, unless you want to live in the country or are good with pretty old housing stock (and not everyone can do these things for any number of reasons), you're going to end up as yet another ham in an HOA. In my particular city, I'd say well over 90 per cent of the housing is new enough to be encumbered with an HOA and the rest is old and crappy.
Reply to a comment by : SSBER on 2020-05-25

Most people have heard how restrictive HOA's are, so why move into one if you like to talk on your radio? Doh!
K4RCH2020-06-04
Re: Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
"In Virginia any development of five homes or more require the builder to stand up a Homeowner's Association."

Really? Can you cite the code section? Genuinely curious how the Commonwealth can mandate that.
Reply to a comment by : WD4HXG on 2020-06-04

In Virginia any development of five homes or more require the builder to stand up a Homeowner's Association. As a consequence the number of unencumbered homes in populated areas in the CommunistWealth have plunged dramatically. If you do find a home with no HOA then it is likely to have restrictive covenants in the deed and/or the land parcel large enough to push the annual real estate tax bill over $10,000.00 a year.
Reply to a comment by : WO7R on 2020-05-31

>>> Most people have heard how restrictive HOA's are, so why move into one if you like to talk on your radio? Doh! <<< In some parts of the country it is not that easy. Here in Arizona, any housing development in anything resembling a city has had an HOA attached for at least the last 20 years if not longer. How do I know? The realtor I worked with said so. I also went to enough "for sale" houses to observe it for myself. It's not a law, it's just. . .custom. If you want a development without an HOA in town it mysteriously takes forever to get the permits. Government here likes HOAs because they take pressure off of government to do things (e.g. street lights, even public parks). So, unless you want to live in the country or are good with pretty old housing stock (and not everyone can do these things for any number of reasons), you're going to end up as yet another ham in an HOA. In my particular city, I'd say well over 90 per cent of the housing is new enough to be encumbered with an HOA and the rest is old and crappy.
Reply to a comment by : SSBER on 2020-05-25

Most people have heard how restrictive HOA's are, so why move into one if you like to talk on your radio? Doh!
WD4HXG2020-06-04
Re: Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
In Virginia any development of five homes or more require the builder to stand up a Homeowner's Association. As a consequence the number of unencumbered homes in populated areas in the CommunistWealth have plunged dramatically. If you do find a home with no HOA then it is likely to have restrictive covenants in the deed and/or the land parcel large enough to push the annual real estate tax bill over $10,000.00 a year.
Reply to a comment by : WO7R on 2020-05-31

>>> Most people have heard how restrictive HOA's are, so why move into one if you like to talk on your radio? Doh! <<< In some parts of the country it is not that easy. Here in Arizona, any housing development in anything resembling a city has had an HOA attached for at least the last 20 years if not longer. How do I know? The realtor I worked with said so. I also went to enough "for sale" houses to observe it for myself. It's not a law, it's just. . .custom. If you want a development without an HOA in town it mysteriously takes forever to get the permits. Government here likes HOAs because they take pressure off of government to do things (e.g. street lights, even public parks). So, unless you want to live in the country or are good with pretty old housing stock (and not everyone can do these things for any number of reasons), you're going to end up as yet another ham in an HOA. In my particular city, I'd say well over 90 per cent of the housing is new enough to be encumbered with an HOA and the rest is old and crappy.
Reply to a comment by : SSBER on 2020-05-25

Most people have heard how restrictive HOA's are, so why move into one if you like to talk on your radio? Doh!
K6UJ2020-06-04
Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
It is unfortunate you put a ridiculous political statement
at the beginning. You may have a good idea but I decided to not read any further.

Bob
K6UJ
WO7R2020-05-31
Re: Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
>>> Most people have heard how restrictive HOA's are, so why move into one if you like to talk on your radio? Doh! <<<

In some parts of the country it is not that easy. Here in Arizona, any housing development in anything resembling a city has had an HOA attached for at least the last 20 years if not longer. How do I know? The realtor I worked with said so. I also went to enough "for sale" houses to observe it for myself. It's not a law, it's just. . .custom. If you want a development without an HOA in town it mysteriously takes forever to get the permits. Government here likes HOAs because they take pressure off of government to do things (e.g. street lights, even public parks).

So, unless you want to live in the country or are good with pretty old housing stock (and not everyone can do these things for any number of reasons), you're going to end up as yet another ham in an HOA.

In my particular city, I'd say well over 90 per cent of the housing is new enough to be encumbered with an HOA and the rest is old and crappy.
Reply to a comment by : SSBER on 2020-05-25

Most people have heard how restrictive HOA's are, so why move into one if you like to talk on your radio? Doh!
SSBER2020-05-25
Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
Del Boca Vista Phase 3
AB3MO2020-05-25
Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
Before doing anything, please take the time to thoroughly read ALL of the association's governing documents. IN Florida, I found I only needed permission to drill two holes in my condo wall for coax and a ground! Not all developers are "swift!" And lawyers might be less so!
SSBER2020-05-25
Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
Most people have heard how restrictive HOA's are, so why move into one if you like to talk on your radio? Doh!
KD6VXI2020-05-24
Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
Had to stop reading when he turned a how-to into an asinine political statement.

Stupidity at its finest.

--Shane
KD6VXI
K1FPV2020-05-23
Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
I am well aware of how to deal with Homeowners Associations! I was so disgusted with mine when they tried to prevent me from painting my front door to a different color. So I ran for the board and unfortunately, I got elected.

I also wanted to put up a metal flagpole and use it as a vertical and managed that project effectively. They disallowed permanent flagpoles till 9/11 hit and I used that to put mine up and the outboard tuner was in a plastic weatherproof box at the base surrounded by small bushes and flowers. I used it for 4 years till I sold the place and moved back up here in New England when I retired.
KC7MF2020-05-22
Re: Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
Nice. I love an eham article that contains an offensive political comment.
Reply to a comment by : WD4HXG on 2020-05-20

Scott you must have some magic in your internet connection. The only two links in your article that did not 404 me were: https://www.fibreglast.com/ http://skp-cs.com/poleproducts/hingepoles/hingedpoles.asp I tried using differing browsers on the chance thre was a browser sensitivity. Any ideas on what to try to bring up the other URL's listed in the article. Thanks Chuck WD4HXG
WD4HXG2020-05-20
Re: Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
Thanks for pointing out the original date. I focused on the date the article was posted (05-18-2020) and totally overlooked the comment about when the article was first posted nearly 15 years ago.

Regards

Chuck
Reply to a comment by : KG5ZLE on 2020-05-20

Well, the article was posted in July of 2005 so I would imagine some of the links don't work...
Reply to a comment by : WD4HXG on 2020-05-20

Scott you must have some magic in your internet connection. The only two links in your article that did not 404 me were: https://www.fibreglast.com/ http://skp-cs.com/poleproducts/hingepoles/hingedpoles.asp I tried using differing browsers on the chance thre was a browser sensitivity. Any ideas on what to try to bring up the other URL's listed in the article. Thanks Chuck WD4HXG
KG5ZLE2020-05-20
Re: Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
Well, the article was posted in July of 2005 so I would imagine some of the links don't work...
Reply to a comment by : WD4HXG on 2020-05-20

Scott you must have some magic in your internet connection. The only two links in your article that did not 404 me were: https://www.fibreglast.com/ http://skp-cs.com/poleproducts/hingepoles/hingedpoles.asp I tried using differing browsers on the chance thre was a browser sensitivity. Any ideas on what to try to bring up the other URL's listed in the article. Thanks Chuck WD4HXG
WD4HXG2020-05-20
Hide Your HF Vertical in Plain Sight
Scott you must have some magic in your internet connection. The only two links in your article that did not 404 me were:
https://www.fibreglast.com/
http://skp-cs.com/poleproducts/hingepoles/hingedpoles.asp

I tried using differing browsers on the chance thre was a browser sensitivity.

Any ideas on what to try to bring up the other URL's listed in the article.

Thanks

Chuck WD4HXG