Gentlemen/Ladies
I have been reading with interest this topic. I moved into an HOA restricted community thinking I would not be back on ham radio. Well, that was a poor assumption. My HOA restriction besides being outside with no antenna, it prohibits any "transmitting" antenna. I have lived here almost 7 years and lo and behold my wife suggested I get back on ham radio. In April I began putting together a totally new station. By July I was almost set-up and
by August operating. My early thoughts were what to do about an antenna. At my previous residence I had a 50' tower, 3 element tri-bander and 3 elements on six meters.
I have a broadband butterfly terminated dipole, 110' in the attic. It is 1.3:1 or better on 10-160 meters and 2.6:1 on 6 meters and that is not a problem with my new Kenwood TS590GS and its' internal tuner. I also have an Edison Fong 2m/70cm dipole. Finding antennas for individual bands
came easily with Isotron antennas manufactured here in Colorado. I have 6, 10, 15 and 20 meter isotrons also in the attic.There is a single feedline to the 10, 15, 20 meter antennas, a dedicate feedline to the 6 meter (I am thinking of adding a 17meter to it).
The Isotron antennas work well and I have worked from Alaska to New Hampshire. The dipole needs to be raised, I have about 6-8 feet more height
available and will do this as the weather cools in about 60 days. I have heard Portugal, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and worked both Canada and Mexico
with the Isotrons.
I have made contacts on 6, 40 and 80 meters along with 20meters on the dipole. I have only heard one qso on 160 but they couldn't hear me. I have
no linear even though the Isotrons will handle 500W inside, 300 on CW or 1000 outside and 500 CW.
KD2HU, for $70 you can have a 20 meter isotron. It is 21 1/2 inches by 5 inches wide. I have all 4 of mine on a 10 foot mast raised to the roof top.
However, you must not have aluminum roofing for the isotrons as they are not effective with that. Three antennas on a single feedline with the jumpers which come without charge if you buy 3 antennas. The 4 antennas weigh less than 4 pounds.
Isotrons are very touchy to get to resonance. They are broadbanded. By using a good antenna tuner you can get very close to 1:1 and you will need to adjust once in the attic. In the attic changes the swr so it will have to be retuned. In my case it was the 20 meter that was most difficult. The
6, 10 and 15 are around 1.3:1 and the 20m is 1.8:1. Isotrons are omni directional.
The balun for the dipole is hard to find but Palomar Engineers has the 16:1 and a 1000K ohms resistor. ARRL handbook states that a 1KW signal will
require a 750 ohm resistor for a terminated dipole resistor. There is a good video for the BBTD antenna. See it by typing in Broadband Terminated
Dipole. The demonstrated dipole there is 132' long. The balun and resistor he uses is no longer available as the company manufacturing them closed 3 or 4 years ago.
I just run 100W max as I am barefoot and the dipole resistor handles the power easily.
Yes, they aren't beams but they do work so here is an answer to antennas for HOA restrictions. I believe that as conditions improve in cycle 25 they
will be more than adequate and may even get you some decent DX. One recent qso revealed that with a 20 meter dipole and good conditions the gentleman worked Russia from the mid-west with a 100W transceiver. I think he had it mounted outside though but not real high.
The entire set-up antenna wise, not counting coax, was around $550 including ferrites for all 6 antennas. Of that the balun and resistor were about
$160.
Well, it was long. I hope you enjoyed my efforts. I have a new call that I will get on eham later today. It is KE0VT. I look forward to comments and
working you all sometime.
73