Hey all,
I have a question or two. First off, I live in an apartment, on the second floor, with no patio/deck. My VHF/UHF antennas are in the attic, and work fine for repeaters and simplex. If conditions are favorable, I can get into the Roanoke, VA. repeater from my apartment in Kernersville, NC. Thats a pretty good distance. I am not full quieting, but readable.
I have just aquired a Kenwood TS-930 withh the built in antenna tuner. I am upgrading very soon and want to go ahead and get an antenna in place so that I can begin using the rig as soon as I am legally able.
I realize I cannot reasonably expect to work 160 meters with limited space, but if possible, I would like to be active on 80-10. Would I be better off using one dipole, 135' (I think thats right) for all bands, or should I cut individual dipoles for each band? All this has to fit in the attic...I looked at doing a wire around the building, but it would be noticeable on the front, and all the power, tv and cable comes in on the back of the building in various locations, so thats out.
If I do the seperate dipoles with one feed line, will the Tuner on the radio properly tune? That may be a stupid question, but I didnt know. I am very strapped for cash right now, so an external tuner is out of the question. Whatever I do will have to be simple, low budget, and somewhat capable of radiating further than the parking lot.
Any and all suggestions are welcome, but please dont waste bandwidth suggesting I move. Thats kinda hard when you are in the middle of a nasty divorce, and she got all the money.....
One other question. Station Grounding..how? the cold water pipes are PVC, and it would be a 20' run out the window to a grounding rod. I am sure that the ground line would resonate on some portion of the HF bands, so does anyone have any ideas? I want to operate safe...
Thx & 73
Tim, KG4MQD