Damn The HOA! Try This Stealth Antenna Setup Instead.

[@rawlinharringtonke8tiq837]

I live in an HOA with a no antenna rule. I put up two 60' towers and a total of 9 antennas. They tried to fight it and I won because my property and I own it not them.

[@LiamZLBED]

It's a load of crap HOA

[@shanerorko8076]

Yep, I'm Australian and we don't really have HOA like the US, but we do have villages and apartment blocks ect. But everyone is an expert on a subject until they meet the judge, or magistrate as we call low level judges here. Ultimately it's the courts that decide and many people don't understand this, the courts have all the power.

[@InformalGreeting]

Recently moved to a new house and the HOA has a loophole in the rules they use to exclude antennas. And I don't mean just towers, they went after someone for a TV antenna on their roof. Kind of strange because other than this they really aren't a problem. Rumor is if you ask for permission first they'll send it to the architectural committee and most likely approve it. I'm not going to give them an opportunity to say no. I've been getting to know all the neighbors and have been talking about what the HOA could be doing and where they're falling short. Goal succeeded, about half the neighborhood has asked me to run for president of the HOA. So come April I can assure everyone that if they want an antenna all they'll hear from me is to call if they need help putting it up.

[@miket7184]

My first instructions to my realtor: NO HOA! Show me one, and you're fired!

[@hamradiotube]

Ha! Smart move.

[@lonewolfhamradio]

Don’t understand how a hoa can tell you what to do with your house, if you own it then how do they get a say ?

[@miket7184]

@@lonewolfhamradio If a person agrees to enter into a homeowner's association, they have to obey the rules or pay fines. If they refuse to pay fines, a lien can be put on their home and the property confiscated and sold. I sounds crazy, but it's all part of the contract people willingly sign. People enter into HOA's believing it will preserve property values as everyone has to 'conform' to regulations in the way they need to upkeep the property they've purchased.

[@socallars3748]

Same! I also told her no palm trees. But I had to settle for one tree. Of course this was all 25 years ago.🌴

[@socallars3748]

@@lonewolfhamradio It's a contractual obligation and you can't buy in the neighborhood without signing it. Oh, and it also comes with HEFTY monthly fees, typically several hundred dollars! On the bright side, it protects you from trashy neighbors who put cars up on blocks in the front yard or park giant motorhomes on the street. But at what cost?

[@ww7gbaradio382]

LOVE the shark sticks. I used these on a trimag mount on my 2001 Durango. I ran a coax under my garage door and plugged that to my 7300. Got all 50 states award with that setup. 40 works great, 80, not good, it’s a 75 an narrower than a narrow tunnel, LOL I live in an HOA, but now I have a DX Commander Rapide, very happy with that. That said the Shark Sticks are awesome and a great way to get going. I went with the DX because I got tired of going out heavy snow to change bands. I am in Heber City UT and today is one of those days, snow has been comin down since last Wed. Got 3.5 feet out there right now! Louis WW7GBA

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Nice Program for calculations for battery size

[@LarryBingham1971]

"I use 69% power because 69". Never a dull moment watching one of your vids, Mike. Thanks for the link to the calculator.

[@justins.1283]

I used to have long wire dipole run under the eves of the house. Nobody even knew I had a radio in the house.

[@VE6LK]

Mike, on checking 80m performance during the day I use Winlink and VARA HF. Send a sample email out to a nearby 80m gateway and swap antennas and do it again. It will show S/N stats for each connection and this can be used as a crude point of comparison. Great update as always - 73 de VE6LK

[@sincerelyyours7538]

Hi Mike. I am a US ham operating in Japan. I want to try POTA but I have some questions that are way too basic for your normal audience. I need to ask them anyway if for no other reason than for my own piece of mind. First, the parks near me are often occupied by parents, children, dogs and old people. If I set up a station I will likely draw a crowd, most of them children. Q1. How dangerous is it for curious hands to touch a live antenna while transmitting at QRP levels? Q2. What do hams do to prevent that? And Q3. What is considered a safe POTA power level? I'll be using a 17' whip with a loading coil and ground radials. I'd try a tabletop mag loop (5W max) but I already know those are dangerous. Thanks. 73 JS2OLO

[@randyhavener1851]

Thanks Mike!

[@deanmason560]

I remember this with 40M NVIS. The vehicle is the counterpoise. slick

[@truckinguy92]

This is why I scratch my head as to why people run FT8 during POTA. Almost 5 times the battery capacity required.

[@nrgxpert]

Thanks for the info on batteries and a great spreadsheet. I want to mention something I feel that is important, but left out of the spreadsheet. In your first example using SSB, you are transmitting using 16 Amperes and the recommended battery size for 1 hour of use is 2.1 Ah. That is not a good "C-ratio", which is how much current you should safely pull from a battery, with 1C being the Ah capacity of the battery. In the case of the SSB example, that would be 2.1 Amperes. You would be pulling 8C with your 100W radio, which is likely too much for a small LiFePO4 battery that likely is limited to around 2C. I would like to see a column for minimum battery size based on Ampere draw, for example 16Ah for a 16A draw.

[@hamradiotube]

That's a good point. Didn't even think about that.

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Thesmokinape does some great battery videos

[@NAPELAKAPU]

Unfortunately Amazon will not ship batteries to Hawaii. Non of the batteries you mentioned are available here. To have them shipped here will cost an extra hazardous material cost from $60 to over $100.

[@yowsa52]

I’m in Mexico operating some mxexpidition outlaw radio. Using a wolf river coil, MFJ 1979 on a camera tripod. I could never get 40 below 1.5 and narrow bandwidth until I used one raised radial at 4’ 32’ long. Used two fewer coil steps and much better bandwidth. Tomorrow I’ll try the radial in the Pacific Ocean.

[@Philip-KA4KOE]

I've fallen in love with the Chamaleon 17' whip, which I got as part of their TDL for my upcoming birthday.

[@22warrent]

love mine as well! stellar performance and easy setup/teardown

[@Philip-KA4KOE]

Made 185 yesterday on an activation with TDL.

[@keithhawkins4641]

I have good luck with a 9:1 unun and 71 foot 28 gauge wire. works 80 - 6 easy. lots of ways to run the wire to hid it. 28 gauge is hard to see any way.

[@hamradiotube]

That would be a great solution as well. That real thin wire is pretty much invisible and can handle 100 watts no problem.

[@RixtronixLAB]

Nice video, thanks :)

[@Rusted_Link]

Perfect! I'm building a setup for the FT 710 and I already declared that I will need 20 ah for 3 hours. We matched. Yay

[@robertmeyer4744]

great questions and answered, even ham radio 2.0 has tested battery's . and some portable power stations. never building that DX commander. which some day I see in a glass display case . my rule for battery is always 2X minimum. that bring 2 battery's . what AH or watt hour you need times 2 . one is none , 2 is 1 and 3 is 2 . how I do math for portable HAM. 73's

[@kevin_wb0poh]

"Two Hamstick as a rotatable dipole?" That's what I use both at home (with HOA), and with my POTA setup. It works quite well. DE WB0POH

[@socallars3748]

For years I used two 20m hamsticks on a TV rotor, it offered considerable performance over my Butternut vertical and G5RV and of course, directivity. Stacked a 2m beam on top of it.

[@mctourer5549]

I have a 50ah Time USB in a power werx Megabox2, it works really well, the battery weighs 11 lbs so the weight isn't to bad,the battery size does require a little persuasion when installing it in the power werx box but it will fit and you get a lot of run time plus have quite a bit extra for charging and running other stuff as well. I run my yeasu ft 450 D FOR weeks before recharging and even then its only at about 60 %. Granted its not running every day but when I do get on the radio its usually for 3 to 4 hours at a time atleast 3 days a week. KE8ZII, 73.

[@pieterdutoit9642]

Hi Mike, I have used the short (6-7 inch coil) type wolfriver coil and 13 m of wire and can do 80m-75m on it and still can adjust the coil to tune nicely I also have a 1m,2m, 3m, 5m,10m wire which join together mix and match all freq for HF freq works great , Thank, Pieter, ZL1PDT

[@sk8crk]

I live in the rainforest and my antenna is 1005 feet long, no coils, no hardware... just paracord and wire.

[@sk8crk]

yes 1005... one thousand and five (not a typo above)

[@hamradiotube]

I will be over shortly lol!

[@DellFargus]

I use a little manual tuner with a bunch of hamsticks (10-40) for POTA. Because of the tuner, there's no piddling around with stinger lengths and I can slam the swr down to zero. I've hit from Hawaii to Africa doing this. Hamstick dipoles are also decent - not great, but decent. This was my first HF antenna - set of hamsticks on top of a telescoping harbor freight flagpole. I learned that you can tune (again with a manual tuner) a pair of 40 meter hamsticks to resonate on 20, 17,15, and 10. They pretty much suck on 80 though, no matter how much you fiddle with and tweak them. Also, Power Queen would be a cool name for a metal band.

[@davidsradioroom9678]

A Wolf River Coils TIA 1000 is an excellent antenna. It is my go-to portable antenna.

[@keithwaning4919]

If I’m dropping 2 or 300.000 on a house or more I’ll be damned if some Karen is going to tell me what I’ll do on my property

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Appreciate the battery calculator link

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Great video very informative at the end on antennas

[@natestone85]

Hey Mike! Love the videos and always tune in and watch a handful when I can. I do look forward to mailbag Monday, but it can be hard to pick it out of a list of videos when watching after the fact. Any chance you could add a tag of some kind to the title to make it easier to spot? No biggie if it’s a PITA, I’ll find them eventually. Just a suggestion that I thought might be helpful to others besides myself. Keep on putting out the awesome content! KN4FZD

[@stevekerstetter2445]

I love your shirt "More Cowbell". Not a lot of people get the reference.

[@deanmason560]

I thought it was on a car. AF6MC

[@toddhowell2299]

I've used that spreadsheet for my FT-857D and FT-818 for SSB and found it to be quite accurate. I've never really killed my 12Ah Bioenno but I got close last Field Day and it lasted pretty much as long as the spreadsheet said it would. Same for WFD with the 818 and a 3Ah battery. Also worth noting is that turning a 100w radio down to 5 watts uses less power, but not 1/20th. More like a 1/3 or so on SSB. On SSB, at 5w my 857D draws 3.3A, where my 818 draws 1.0A.

[@BobBob-il2ku]

What size battery do u recommend for the ft-857D ?

[@CanuckHam]

Magnetic Loops are easily hidden too (my favorite :) ), for HOA antenna ideas I always look for old WW2 clandestine radio manuals. One I saw was a loop taped to the wall with the tuner attached. No feed line besides the one to the tuner! Great Video ! Sorry I am late to the party haha!

[@kd5you1]

One thing to consider when it comes to battery is how much current draw a battery can handle. I have two 3 aH LiFEPO4 batteries I use with HTs or FT-818, but I wouldn't be able to use them with a FT-891 at 100 watts TX. 73 KD5YOU

[@wb7ond]

Thanks for the tip on the solar site, that guy is good... Appreciate that... Appreciate the work you put in on your videos, and you get to the point quickly... Best 73...

[@sethtaylor5938]

Line 3 in the spread sheet is akin to a duty cycle entry within a specific mode. CW is least, voice / FM or AM is the most. Data and CW, somewhere in between

[@tlebryk]

Try a 40m ham stick attached to an EndFed 9:1 unun, replace the aluminum whip with a brass whip, then solder a wire to the tip of the brass whip and take the wire out to wherever you can.

[@AlvinMcManus]

Outstanding video, thank you and thank Phil for the spreadsheet. Just what I was looking for.

[@wildbill1]

call it Fck the HOA

[@M9A1MAN]

Agreed. I had a lot of luck with Litime & Redodo batteries

[@TheTdub]

Most excellent shirt!! Party time....party time

[@tlcgolden]

Absolutely damn the HOA across America.

[@ehayes5217]

Yes, but when u buy a property in an HOA, ur deed will be "subject to" those restrictions☹️, a choice one makes

[@ThomasEKenny]

More cowbell!

[@VA3NFL-zl1md]

great intell Mike

[@bobr6555]

"Embiggen"?

[@hamradiotube]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJTbpJqQrdahe8ksi=d4KzVkGOulKzeuFO

[@tspirawk-KD9ZLQ]

It's a perfectly cromulent word. :)

[@hamradiotube]

@@tspirawk-KD9ZLQ lol!

[@corywelch2383]

Always good information on your channel! Keep them coming. When I saw your call on FT8, I recognized the call and gave it try. Thanks for the contact Mike! 73 de N4UVR

[@jdschauss]

I'm with you on the Wolf River Coils antennas. Fine people, great to do business with, and their product just WORKS.