Very good and uplifting video for us antenna restricted Hams. You are absolutely correct! There is always a way to get on the air, although not always perfect. The most important thing to do is NOT to give up and try as many options as you can. I had a 37 ft. 10m-40m OCF Dipole in my 20 ft.x20 ft. garage attic that got me on the air, but wasn't so good. I tried a 7ft. tall MFJ 40m Mag mounted Hamstick on my van in the driveway with better results than the attic OCF Dipole. But it required me to drag out a ladder to take it off to drive the van, then put it back on to use my HF rig. I tried the 2-Hamstick dipole in the garage attic but the SWR was 14:1 and basically worthless no matter how I positioned or adjusted it, but I have heard others say it worked quite well for them. Turns out one side of my Town Home is 53 ft. long so I bought a www.MyAntennas.com 53 ft. end fed long wire with a 9:1 UnUn and mounted it in a slightly inverted "V". from eve to eve of the roof. It has a low SWR and tunes very well on 6m-80m and even fairly good on 160m. I was shocked that the SWR was so low on all the bands! With a tuner making only very slight adjustments I am making SSB, CW and Digital contacts on all the active bands. The best part is that it is 95% invisible! Only two people in my community out of over 100 Town Home dwellings might see it, unless someone would walk into to my yard and stare straight up. So NEVER give up and keep experimenting until you find the best option.
HOAs can not restrict ham or tv antennas as much a people think. Check the fcc.. rules and present it to the HOA they won't want a visit from the fcc...
Very good and uplifting video for us antenna restricted Hams. You are absolutely correct! There is always a way to get on the air, although not always perfect. The most important thing to do is NOT to give up and try as many options as you can. I had a 37 ft. 10m-40m OCF Dipole in my 20 ft.x20 ft. garage attic that got me on the air, but wasn't so good. I tried a 7ft. tall MFJ 40m Mag mounted Hamstick on my van in the driveway with better results than the attic OCF Dipole. But it required me to drag out a ladder to take it off to drive the van, then put it back on to use my HF rig. I tried the 2-Hamstick dipole in the garage attic but the SWR was 14:1 and basically worthless no matter how I positioned or adjusted it, but I have heard others say it worked quite well for them. Turns out one side of my Town Home is 53 ft. long so I bought a www.MyAntennas.com 53 ft. end fed long wire with a 9:1 UnUn and mounted it in a slightly inverted "V". from eve to eve of the roof. It has a low SWR and tunes very well on 6m-80m and even fairly good on 160m. I was shocked that the SWR was so low on all the bands! With a tuner making only very slight adjustments I am making SSB, CW and Digital contacts on all the active bands. The best part is that it is 95% invisible! Only two people in my community out of over 100 Town Home dwellings might see it, unless someone would walk into to my yard and stare straight up. So NEVER give up and keep experimenting until you find the best option.
HOAs can not restrict ham or tv antennas as much a people think. Check the fcc.. rules and present it to the HOA they won't want a visit from the fcc...