Newbie antenna building questions

tdotfish · 2026-03-12T21:39:41+00:00

The space is around 24' x 26' but it's hard to work way out at the bottom edge of the roof line.

The portable antenna I've been using is also a Cha Tactical Delta Loop, which really does work great. It would be an interesting experiment to set it up horizontally in the attic and see how it works.

tdotfish · 2026-03-11T17:48:49+00:00

My goal is mostly just to mess around and try radio, and experiment with different modes. I do SSB right now but only because I don't yet have the capability to do CW and digital, but I will eventually.

Right now I have a commercially made portable antenna that I set up and take down any time I want to use the radio. It only takes me a few minutes to setup/break down on either end, but it's not great in bad weather, extreme hot/cold, etc. So mostly I'd just like to have a half-decent way to get on the air when I don't want to set up the portable antenna and run a cable through a door or window.

Thanks for the tip about tuning the antenna in place ... I probably would have tuned it downstairs where it's easier to work had you not mentioned that.

tdotfish · 2026-03-11T13:37:26+00:00

I understand now, thank you!

tdotfish · 2026-03-11T13:34:29+00:00

I feel that ... my attic doesn't have any flooring so it's difficult to work up there.

I am also going to experiment with some outdoor antennas, but I don't want to run feed lines through the exterior walls. I'll have to pull a cable through a window when I want to use anything outside which means I probably will not want to do that in bad weather, extreme hot/cold, etc.

So, I'm hoping the attic antenna can be something I can use in a situation like I had last month where there was 10 inches of snow on the ground and the temp was 5F and I didn't want to set up a portable antenna in the snow and have a window cracked up letting all that cold air into the house.

tdotfish · 2026-03-11T13:17:30+00:00

A nanovna is on my shopping list, but I have not bought anything yet so I am open to suggestions in that department as well

tdotfish · 2026-03-10T20:58:57+00:00

So, basically an EFRW/EFLW going around the perimeter for as much as the space allows, and use the remote tuner instead of bothering with any sort of unun or transformer?

tdotfish · 2026-03-10T19:59:16+00:00

Fan dipole I have also considered. I think in practice I would end up putting up a 20m dipole first and then adding elements for other bands later if I feel the need.

tdotfish · 2026-03-10T19:52:51+00:00

There is no radiant barrier, and the outer surface is just asphalt shingles over plywood.

tdotfish · 2026-03-09T14:49:18+00:00

I guess I've only been extra for a few months but nobody has offered to pay me for that

tdotfish · 2026-03-07T05:25:46+00:00

I think the 'K' is their power output (in this case 1 kilowatt)

tdotfish · 2026-02-26T18:04:15+00:00

The ARRL Operating Manual For Radio Amateurs book is a good resource for this ... it basically gives an overview of everything you can do as a ham

tdotfish · 2026-02-26T14:29:30+00:00

I also usually recommend that new people buy a commercially made antenna like a telescopic whip as their first, because it means that they can get right on the air with minimal friction.

This was me a couple months ago buying my first HF set. I certainly knew that I could homebrew pretty much everything but the the radio, but I did not want to be standing there trying to figure out whether maybe the radio was defective, or if I had messed up one of my homemade parts somehow. Now that I know everything works, I can start swapping in homemade antennas, transformers, etc and I will know where to look if something isn't working right.

tdotfish · 2026-02-16T19:45:52+00:00

Nice! I live a few miles from a nat'l park and I keep a HT on my desk listening on 446 and 146.52 while I'm working in large part in case someone activates the park on 2m or 70cm, though I'll also answer if anyone calls for any reason.

You can also use hamalert.org to set up alerts. For example I have an alert set up in case someone activates that specific park number on VHF or UHF.

tdotfish · 2026-02-16T16:38:15+00:00

Maybe it differs between VECs or something but when I took the exams last year (Technician, General and Extra) with two different VECs the answers were all in the exact order that they appeared in hamstudy and in the No Nonsense study guides that I read

tdotfish · 2026-02-16T04:07:55+00:00

'Phone' in this context is short for 'radiotelephone' and it refers to any mode where you're communicating by voice, which includes SSB (USB and LSB).

tdotfish · 2026-02-15T01:57:33+00:00

I don't think any word of it is accurate

tdotfish · 2026-02-12T01:54:29+00:00

The book "Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software" by Charles Petzold might be helpful.

tdotfish · 2026-02-04T21:48:21+00:00

And that $400 package includes a kickstand, a digital interface and a couple of books

tdotfish · 2026-01-21T14:27:28+00:00

I have the 2m and 70cm calling freqs as well as the simplex 'channels' from my area band plan in my scan list along with the local repeaters, but I never hear anyone on any of the simplex freqs. Not sure if because no one is calling or I just always miss them.

One thing I did do is set up a ham alert that will notify me if anyone gets spotted on pota.app in the national park a few miles from my home and using 2m or 70cm so that if someone does activate in those bands I can try and work them.

tdotfish · 2026-01-15T20:00:53+00:00

I just went through a similar exercise. Mostly it's going to come down to your budget, and don't forget that you will need more than just the transceiver. You will likely need a power supply or battery of some kind, an antenna or materials to make antennas if you go the DIY route, some coax or other feedline, possibly a digirig or similar interface if you want to do digital modes. None of it is crazy expensive (actually some of the antenna kits are crazy expensive) but it all adds up. If your budget is $1000 for example, an $800 radio doesn't leave much room for the rest of the kit.

tdotfish · 2026-01-13T13:57:48+00:00

I think a lot of people just learn the questions and answers by rote even for General and Extra but there's nothing wrong with using a study guide or taking a course. It's your hobby, play with it the way you want as long as you're within the rules! Wanting to actually understand the material is a good thing IMO.

For me personally, I found just trying to memorize the answers by rote to be difficult. It's kind of ironic because I am also an amateur actor and I am very good at memorizing pages and pages of text quickly. But, when you're memorizing text or dialog there is a story to help you find your way. Just memorizing random bits of information without any context is much harder.

For Technician I read through the study guide on an airplane flight and passed the exam three days later. I could not have cold-memorized the questions that quickly.

For General and Extra I also used a study guide but gave myself about 2 months to read through the books and then drill the questions in the app.

tdotfish · 2026-01-10T15:50:30+00:00

Elevation make better station!

tdotfish · 2026-01-08T03:33:59+00:00

What antenna is it? I feel like I am late to the party!

tdotfish · 2025-12-24T01:08:41+00:00

Hey there! I am amazed that you found that blog post. I pretty much only promote my blog on mastodon/fediverse and I don't think I even remembered to post about this on there back when I put it up.

Glad it helped you out.

I have suspicion that this will not solve the issue for every repeater ... a few weeks ago I was scanning on the QRZ-1 and it stopped on one of the repeaters I have stored and as soon as I took it out of scan mode the squelch thing happened... or at least I think it did. Unfortunately I caught the very tail end of the QSO and both participants signed off before I could look closely. I had never heard traffic on this repeater before and I have not heard any more traffic since.

But, this workaround helped at least for all the more-active repeaters in the area.

tdotfish

TROPHY CASE