Batboard

This morning I was listening to a couple hams here localy on 2m. As normal they were talking about their equipment and 1 of them had said he had an indoor antenna made out of a metal trash can.He said he was using a Icom 2100 at 50w with this thing. He said that he took a mental trash can turned it over and mounted a NMO antenna on it. Now I don't know that much about antennas and everyone on this board has been very helpful with N-E questions I have had and was hoping some one could explian how this could be. I thought NMO's had to be grounded?

It is. The trash can is acting as the counterpoise and is big enough for 2m.

I've heard of people using cookie sheets, filing cabinets and one I guy I know stuck his mag-mount to the underside of some ductwork in the basement of his house. Worked just fine!

The hole in the top of a Lowenbrau mini keg was very close to 3/4". I used to put NMO on them. Could never keep one though. As soon as anybody saw it they had to have it.

I made one out of an old 12" guitar speaker frame once. Screwed the frame to the roof (had a flat roofed house) and mounted the antenna in the hole where the magnet used to be, ran a couple of wires out as radials. worked pretty good.

Darn!, I was thinking that the Ham had 'loaded' the trash can as his antenna. Putting a NMO 3/4 mount and an antenna on the trash can is cheating.

Was that 'loaded' series feed or shunt feed?

I heard someone on the radio once, talking about how he powered a qrp rig with a string of lemons.

I can set off a blasting cap with some lemmons or a couple of potatoes...

I have also heard of some tuning their gutters for 160m or 80m. Never personally seen it done though.

Wonder if the guy sits next to the antenna pushing 50 watts straight towards his eyes etc....cant be a good thing.
Mike

mikerabbit wrote:Wonder if the guy sits next to the antenna pushing 50 watts straight towards his eyes etc....cant be a good thing.
Mike

Do you think it would really matter?

That's gonna be the trick when I move to the house we're building. I've got LOTS of yard (more than a football field) here at the old house with trees all around it to support resonant wire antennas (dipoles, loops, etc). I'm used to being able to run 1KW on 160M-10M if I need (?want?) to. I'll have the stealth flagpole antenna at the new house and maybe some burried antennas (they DO work, just not as good as the 540ft loop I have on 160M up 90ft). I've heard of people putting loop antennas around the edges of their attics but, with the bedrooms on the 2nd floor, I just don't see this as being such a good idea. With a compromise antenna (small loop in attic), you have to make up for things with preamps and running more power to achieve the same results as a properly tuned resonant antenna up 50-100ft running 10W.

John

Same here... I live on a hilltop and my antennas are simply in the attic, lying on the rafters. The VHF antenna is a 1/4wave mag-mount stuck to the middle of a chrome serving tray <that my wife is STILL looking for> and the UHF is 1/4wave mag-mount stuck to a cookie sheet. Both work fantastic. However, I do plan to poke a hole in the roof and mount a pole, upgrade antennas, etc, as soon as I find the time. These have worked so well, I've just not been pressed to change.

I used to have a Gamma rod setup hoseclamped onto a light pole in a local shopping center up on a hill. I'd just pull up and reach out the window with a coax and go! It was up high enough that nobody messed with it. The truck had 38" tires and a 10" suspension lift, so when I reached up to it, it was at about 8'.