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KL7JR Indoor Bent Vertical Dipole 10-20 Meters

Okay now that I've relocated back to Alaska and living on the top floor (14 th) of a high-rise apartment, I can't put up any exterior antennas. I guess I should just limit myself to work mobile or portable then? Not!

Hey, what ham would'nt want to take advantage of being 150 feet above ground, hi hi!
This is a continuation of my "KL7JR Vertical Pancake Dipole 10-20 Meters" design at Hamuniverse.com. This custom design is to fit my 4 ft by 8 ft living room window (yes honey, the antenna will be invisible!).

 






Total length of each leg of the antenna is 17 feet long (each 2 inch diameter coil, one per leg, measures about 14 feet of #14 solid insulated wire). I find the solid wire easier to work with and form the coils. I made the coils larger to better utilize the space I had (hmmm will that work?). My windows were of the new high efficiency plastic style which afforded me a lot of glass and not much metal framing to worry about interference. My LDG-100 auto tuner easily tuned 10, 12, 15, 17 and 20 meters quickly, so that was a good sign for me. Band conditions were terrible the past 3 weekends up here (March 2009) but I managed to work Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Montana, New Jersey and Ontario, Canada with S5 or better reports each way on 20 meters. I set my output power to 50 watts so as not to advertise to the neighbors what I was up to! When the bands improve, I will go QRP.
 
On my second QSO with W2NQ in Oregon, 3 weeks apart, John asked how my antenna experiment was going and gave me a 5x8 report. He was a loud 5x9 with me. He was in QSO with W7EL mobile in New Jersey and asked me to call him. W7EL and I exchanged reports- he was 5x1 and I was a 5x3, then we both traded 5x5s a minute later. Not bad for an indoor antenna working a mobile antenna! Later on I added an "ugly balun" near the feedpoint for added insurance.

All in all I am pleased with the results playing with this design and the knowledge gained experimenting with large coils which has me thinking about a delta loop with coils now! Have fun antenna experimenting and share your results with us!
73 de Yukon John, KL7JR

Editors note: Try is outside on a mast with the legs vertical!

Let us know how it works for you!

Contact Us!
n4ujw at hamuniverse.com