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Author Topic: Becoming a Urban Ham what to expect  (Read 500 times)

ROGERD

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Becoming a Urban Ham what to expect
« on: October 15, 2022, 09:45:57 AM »

I'm about to get my license and live in a suburb and HOA.
What problems can I expect to encounter. My primary residence is a townhouse.
I do have another residence in a non HOA area on a third of acre.
Which I could use instead of my condo,but that would be ideal for me.
I have a Collins S line setup and at 69 years old I figure it's now or never for a life long dream. I also want to have the ability to communicate in case things go south
Your experiences would be helpful.
Thanks
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KC8KTN

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Re: Becoming a Urban Ham what to expect
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2022, 10:02:29 AM »

Welcome to the family.
From my experience hoa's are not ham friendly. Good Luck. And congrats on your dream. Stay safe and God Bless...
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K6CPO

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Re: Becoming a Urban Ham what to expect
« Reply #2 on: October 15, 2022, 10:15:29 AM »

Welcome to the family.
From my experience hoa's are not ham friendly. Good Luck. And congrats on your dream. Stay safe and God Bless...

It's not so much that they aren't ham friendly. What they really are is antenna and tower unfriendly. Somewhere along the line someone decided big antennas and towers reduce the value of other homes in the vicinity, which is not entirely true. I live in a non-hoa area and I have a big vertical in my side yard. Despite that and the two other VHF/UHF antennas I have up, I have watched property values skyrocket in the neighborhood over the last ten years. 
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W7CXC

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Re: Becoming a Urban Ham what to expect
« Reply #3 on: October 15, 2022, 10:16:22 AM »

Welcome and enjoy your dream. Collins S line....nice :). the big thing will be the antenna and what you can get away with. Most will end up being less than ideal but will work. Perhaps a flag pole vertical or a real thin long wire with tuner. Dipole in the attic, mag loop the list goes on and on. Just enjoy!  David
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K1VSK

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Re: Becoming a Urban Ham what to expect
« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2022, 11:24:24 AM »


What problems can I expect to encounter. My primary residence is a townhouse.

Your biggest problem isn’t the HOA as much as it is condo living where you have no private property on which to mount any antenna. The HOA’s rules are irrelevant unless you first have a place to put one.

Seems you have multiple options - your second property, remote from your condo to the second property and an indoor antenna in your condo.
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WA3SKN

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Re: Becoming a Urban Ham what to expect
« Reply #5 on: October 15, 2022, 11:25:08 AM »

You can determine what to expect by just stringing up an antenna and listening to the amount of noise heard on each band with your Collins gear!
And most hams start out with FM and repeaters in the local area.
So what repeaters and what bands are local?  Are you going for technician or a higher class license?

-Mike.
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LNXAUTHOR

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Re: Becoming a Urban Ham what to expect
« Reply #6 on: October 15, 2022, 11:25:35 AM »

my first antenna was $5 worth of radio shack wire in an end unit townhouse with a 23ft horizontal attic leg and a 45ft vertical leg feeding an open wire feed line to a balun to coax through a hole in the ceiling in a second floor bedroom shack... worked the world... now i live in a one story single family condo and have a wireless remote tuned mag loop hidden in areca palms off a patio (no one knows it is there)... alternatively i have an nvis 70ft long 10ft high gutter antenna, also totally stealth

point is: install the best antenna you can where you operate under the best of circumstances to avoid issues with regulations, ordinances, etc... enjoy and get on the air!
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KF4HR

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Re: Becoming a Urban Ham what to expect
« Reply #7 on: October 15, 2022, 12:08:11 PM »

Depending on how snoopy your HOA neighbors are, you may be in for a challenge putting up antennas, but where there's a will, there's a way.  I suggest searching on Youtube on how to install HOA Hidden or Stealth ham antennas.  GL
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ROGERD

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Re: Becoming a Urban Ham what to expect
« Reply #8 on: October 15, 2022, 01:56:40 PM »

my first antenna was $5 worth of radio shack wire in an end unit townhouse with a 23ft horizontal attic leg and a 45ft vertical leg feeding an open wire feed line to a balun to coax through a hole in the ceiling in a second floor bedroom shack... worked the world... now i live in a one story single family condo and have a wireless remote tuned mag loop hidden in areca palms off a patio (no one knows it is there)... alternatively i have an nvis 70ft long 10ft high gutter antenna, also totally stealth

point is: install the best antenna you can where you operate under the best of circumstances to avoid issues with regulations, ordinances, etc... enjoy and get on the air!

Hi All,
Thanks for all your input so fast.
Well I have a lot of great neighbors and there is a move a foot to oust "the no soup for you" board members.
I am going to take my technician test first and then the general.
I'm in Northern Nevada and their is a pretty nice group here which can help me a long.
My elevation is about 4700 ft. so I'll probably find a RKI to help with all things antenna. I think I'll find a installer
and I already have a conduit running up to the roof from where my shack will be. The Condo has a flat roof and there is about a
2 foot wall that runs the perimeter around the roof. That wall is about 100 feet in length so maybe running some type of antenna along the the inside of that wall would work?
Of course my other property would be ideal,but I don't know how long I'll keep that property.
Another question is how much power do you in similar situations run? I think my KWM-2A and 32S1 put out less than 200W
I don't want to draw to much attention. I'm a night owl so I could transmit mostly from 11 pm to 1 A.M. if necessary. I have several receivers so I intend
to listen alot.
I also have plenty of audio gear collected through out my life so I do listen to music quite a bit.
Thanks for all your help. appreciated. 
« Last Edit: October 15, 2022, 02:07:54 PM by ROGERD »
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ROGERD

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Re: Becoming a Urban Ham what to expect
« Reply #9 on: October 15, 2022, 02:25:51 PM »

To give you guys an idea about my roof here is a photo of the perimeter wall.

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K1VSK

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Re: Becoming a Urban Ham what to expect
« Reply #10 on: October 15, 2022, 03:14:27 PM »

To give you guys an idea about my roof here is a photo of the perimeter wall.



While it might be easy to hide a wire antenna up there, it becomes a potential hazard to maintenance people with whom you should be talking both about that and the potential damage to the roof material which isn’t designed to be walked on very much without causing damage. Both can be big liability issues.
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WB6BYU

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Re: Becoming a Urban Ham what to expect
« Reply #11 on: October 15, 2022, 03:24:04 PM »

But maybe you can run a thin antenna wire along that line
of flags, so it doesn't make it any more difficult for maintenance...

G4AON

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Re: Becoming a Urban Ham what to expect
« Reply #12 on: October 15, 2022, 11:31:55 PM »

Your late night operating will be a big issue as the higher HF bands close, the lower ones need bigger/longer antennas.

Daytime operating means you can use higher HF bands with more discreet antennas.

Generally “end fed” wire antennas, while currently flavour of the month, are likely to pickup a lot of local noise. It seems like every phone charger, computer, TV, LED light, is designed to radiate high levels of noise to drive away radio hams.

See what you can receive with perhaps a wire dipole for 20m, along the edge of that roof wall. Use an effective common mode choke at the antenna end of the coax, 8 turns of your RG58 feeder through an FT240-31 ferrite ring will keep things reasonably well balanced.

Good luck.

Dave
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KT4WO

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Re: Becoming a Urban Ham what to expect
« Reply #13 on: October 16, 2022, 02:37:54 AM »

"What problems can I expect to encounter."

Noise....lots of noise.  :(
(at least on 160-40M)
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W1VT

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Re: Becoming a Urban Ham what to expect
« Reply #14 on: October 16, 2022, 04:11:40 AM »

Midnight operating can give you opportunities to work DX, if you have the skills and antennas to work the weaker long distance propagation paths.
As well as a low noise level so the weak signals aren't covered up.

There is an unusual propagation anomaly that allows 40M short skip in Hawaii around midnight.
Not only have I experienced it as a ham but there is a thesis written about it in the University of Hawaii Electrical Engineering department.
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