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The Antenna Farm
More like an antenna window box

My radios presently operate out of four antennas. I have a wire antenna, called a Cliff Dweller, for my HF radio, a 5/8 wave vertical antenna for my CB, a random length wire for my Short wave, and a 5/8 wave dipole for my 2 meter. None of these are ideal antennas, due to the restrictions placed upon me by my status as an apartment dweller, but they are not as compromised as they could be.
Cliff Dweller (HF)
    This is a pretty neat idea, and one of those simple solutions which makes everyone say "Why didn't I think of that ?" The Cliff Dweller is a coiled wire antenna, suited to use on 10-80 meters, though my antenna tuner seems to be able to get me reasonable performance on 160 meters also. The antenna itself looks like a pair of Slinkys, sprouting out from the sides of a regular balun, with a coax connection going down to the radio. The coiled wires can be used extended from 12' out to their full coiled length of 50'. This is ideal for an apartment dweller, and can be used indoors or out; very nice. A tuner will have to be used, of course, but this is pretty much a given for anyone attempting to use a single antenna for multiple bands. The physical length of the wires, if they were to be straightened out, is a full 130'. It is possible to simply buy a 130' long wire antenna, but I love the whole idea of the Cliff Dweller, and have no wish to try and find a 130' run for a wire antenna. I purchased the antenna from USA2WAY over the net. There are some companies which sell knock off units, but this is the original, and is claimed to be the best, though others make their claims too. At any rate, the purchase also gives me a membership, of sorts, in a user group, and access to a number of technical resources.
    I am reasonably happy with the antenna. It performs well, across most bands, and it will have to do, for the present. My auto tuner sems a bit confused by it on some of the odd bands (12, 17, 30 meters), and takes a bit of time to tune to it on 10 meters. With a manual tuner, the antenna tunes right up on all bands, with no problem. The Cliff Dweller is strung along the ceiling of my apartment library, and is extended out to about 30'. I had considered running a length of wire, along the eaves of my apartment building, but did not wish to risk eviction from my building. This is the dilemma which most ham operators find themselves facing these days. It is not an easy matter to find space, and get permission, for a decent antenna, when living in an apartment, or condo complex. Though these places abound with power lines, TV antennas, and satellite dishes, most managers, and owners are poorly informed about ham radio, and find it easier to restrict, or forbid outside antennas for any such "non-standard" uses. The joys of city living.

CB Antenna (5/8 wave fiberglass, groundless)

    I presently use a 5/8 wave, groundless antenna, mounted inside of my library. Actually, this is only mounted inside for a few months of the year. During the summer, and the milder days of fall and spring, I mount the unit on my window sill, outside. The antenna is only about 40" long, and is constructed, like so many things these days, of fiberglass. It tunes up nicely, and gives good performance, even indside. It does not perform as well as my old antenna did, at my former residence.
    My former antenna, at my previous apartement, was a Radio Shack, fiberglass, groundless antenna. It was also a 5/8 wave omnidirectional, a simple whip antenna. It was mounted to the rail of my third floor balcony, and is something like 10 or 11 feet long. It stuck up, a tiny bit, over the roof of the building, and had quite a low profile. It required no tuning for CB, though I have used it on 10, and 20 meters with an antenna tuner. It could probably have made an adequate 40 meter antenna, with a good tuner, but I had no wish to fry my finals, and got the Cliff Dweller instead. The unit was discreet, and stealthy enough, that I had gotten no grief from my neighbors, or my building manager.

Random Length Wire

    The random length wire, is the classic short-wave listener's antenna, though it is also usable for transmission, with a suitable antenna tuner. Of course, usable is a relative term, as is random length. Top performance can never be achieved with a random length antenna, no matter how well tuned. The best that can be hoped for, as a transmitting antenna, is that proper tuning will prevent the destruction of the transmitter finals by reflected waves. The variety of random length "wire" antennas is staggering. Resourceful amateurs have been known to attach antenna tuners, and begin transmitting from window screens, TV antennas, rain gutters, water pipes, and just about every imaginable item which happens to be constructed of metal, and will conduct a charge. Many random length antennas are not random length at all, and are rather carefully measured to be resonant on certain bands. They are then tuned for use on other bands, by the antenna tuner.
    The die hard amateur, with room, money, and time to spare, will grow himself an antenna farm, complete with a series of antennas cut to length for different bands, or with a large antenna, using traps to resonate on different frequencies. Such a set of antennas will require no tuning, or will only require slight tuning to optimize performance. This type of set up will require an antenna switcher, of some sort, unless the operator wishes to swap cables every time he switches bands. This level of operation offers the best, and most uncompromising performance, for those who can implement it. The rest of us have to make due with the random length wire.
    My particular random length antenna is a 30 foot length of copper wire, strung across the ceiling. It feeds into my Icom PCR-100 through a high resistance balun. There is no tuner, or other such device needed, because the antenna is used to receive only. Unlike most transmission antennas, this is truly random length, the length chosen, because it was the longest piece of copper wire that I happened to have, when I was setting up my short wave receiver.

2 meter dipole

    Though most 2 meter operators prefer a vertical antenna, I have cut a dipole to length and strung it across my ceiling. The little antenna is only three feet long, and looks like a T.V. antenna. The SWR is good, and the performance is satisfactory, though I am still considering the purchase of a commercially made vertical antenna. Decisions, decisions.


What an antenna actually does.

        Though there are many sites that do a much better job, I will include a basic explanation of how an antenna works, and how one may easily be home made. A radio signal is a sort of a magnetic field, produced as a side effect of the flow of electric current. It has been known for a couple of hundred years, that electric current produces magnetic fields, and magnetic fields can produce electric current.