Any Ham Radio Operators Here

[W9TR]

W9TR checking in here. Mostly hang out in the McIntosh Audio forum, but I have restored and enjoy a few antique pieces: Philco model 84, Grebe Synchrophase, and a Grunow 4B.

[draftingmonkey]

Tech, KC7EGI.
Will upgrade someday when I move out of this SoCal HOA and can put up a real antenna. The canyon I live in makes it a little difficult to get out there without being able to put up a tower.

Use mostly 2M when on road trips. Am I #28??

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by draftingmonkey

Tech, KC7EGI.
Will upgrade someday when I move out of this SoCal HOA and can put up a real antenna. The canyon I live in makes it a little difficult to get out there without being able to put up a tower.

Use mostly 2M when on road trips. Am I #28??

Good day, sir. Jeff, WB8NHV here. I live in a first-floor apartment (the apartment building is only two stories high) in northeastern Ohio, 35 miles east of Cleveland. I also must use indoor antennas because of lease restrictions (no structures of any kind mounted outside the building); currently have a Barker and Williamson AP-10A portable antenna and an Icom IC-725 9-band 100-watt rig, and an Icom IC-T22A handheld. The latter gets out well to access a local repeater a couple miles from here. I am a member of the Lake County, Ohio Amateur Radio Association, and have been licensed since I was 16 years old in 1972 (I'm now 52). License progression: Novice 1972-74, off air eleven months between June '74-May '75, Technician May '75-June '85, General June '85 to present.

Even with indoor antennas, however, I manage to get on the air with my club's 2-meter and ten-meter nets, so my equipment isn't just sitting around gathering dust. I was very active on 80-10 meters, mostly CW, from my former QTH (location) in suburban Cleveland until 1999, when I moved and had to give up my 70-foot all-band dipole, 30-foot-high Cush Craft Ringo Ranger for 2m, and my packet radio installation (the apartment I live in now is too small for all that gear except the Icom HF transceiver). I also enjoyed DXing on 30-meter CW from my former QTH; don't know how well I'd do with an indoor antenna on that band, although one of these days I'm going to give it a whirl again from here. Living only a mile or so from the southern shore of Lake Erie, I should be able to work into Canada (southwestern Ontario, VE3) and southeastern Michigan (Detroit area) without too much trouble. Thirty meters being the QRP (low power) DX band it is, I should also be able to work all over the country with my 100-watt Icom rig and indoor antenna (I worked stations like gangbusters on 30 from my old QTH, so I know high power isn't a strict requirement for DXing there or on 17/12 meters either).

I wouldn't write off HF just yet. There are ways to get on the so-called "d.c. bands", 80-10 meters, with indoor antennas, as I have done. The B&W AP-10A (I'm sure they have an updated version, AP-10B or C, by now; it, or a similar version put out by MFJ of Starkville, MS is available at, among others, Amateur Electronic Supply in Milwaukee) is good for apartments and other settings (motel rooms, etc.) where large outdoor antennas are prohibited or impractical.

Good luck, and again, don't give up on trying to get on HF, even from an apartment. Where there is a will, there's a way.


73,

[fredh]

K5OG, Fred, here.
Extra class since 1977.
Mostly collect and restore Signal Ones but have other boat anchors as well.
http://www.k5og.com/