HOA Friendly Ham Radio Antennas (Stealthy and Camouflaged)

[@K4SRF]

I live in an HOA and have two verticals in my back yard. One is UHF/VHF and the other is a multiple band HF. They both are mounted to two 33' masts, and yes, you can see them from the street IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THEM. Yes, they are "technically" against the rules, but so are pickup trucks which several residents drive. No one says anything about the trucks, so they better not say anything about my antennas.

[@slik560]

The HOA can actually dictate what kind of vehicle you own? That's not really enforceable. Incredible.

[@aldewitt9]

I use a Chameleon EMCOMM III out my second floor window to the trees at the back of the lot. I don’t need a tuner on anything except 40 meters. I have the Xiegu x5105 and talked to Delaware yesterday on 5 watts. I’ve talked to Quebec on 5 watts. This from Auburn, AL. Very stealthy. Can send photos if you like.

[@Bill-HRT]

Hope this helps someone. I told my HOA in my required request that my MFJ 1786 was a horizontal receive antenna for television and radio. I requested to mount it 6 feet above the the second floor roof at the eave apex; about 40 feet above the ground. I was approved. I painted the housing gray and mounted it horizontally, 6 feet above the roof line according to the approval I DID receive. . If your outdoor request is turned down, it is still a fine attic antenna if your roofing materials are appropriate.

[@MaryBrownForFreedom]

I run one of the 43' verticals, compromise antenna for sure but very effective on 40, 430, 20, and when you reach 17m it works but angle of radiation is climbing and 15m and up it is a super high angle of radiation making it really marginal. I have the auto tuner at the base and it is fed with 1/2 inch heliax to keep losses down. It will work sort of on 80 meters... but very low resistance load makes it hard to match. I built an add on box that makes it tune 80 and 160 okay(very narrow bandwidth on 160m). The band it really shines on is 20m where it approximates a 5/8ths wave vertical, I have worked a ton of DX on 20m with it and have even managed to break pile ups with 100 watts. I have around 80 radials for this one laid in the lawn that vary from 30' to 65'... Living on the prairie I lack trees for dipoles, my main tower has a 4 antenna 2m EME array on it with elevation rotation so I can't have any wires hanging near it to snag with a yagi. Secondary tower is 30' tall so doesn't make 80m operation very feasible(well NVIS would work...)plus I lack end supports to run them to... this tower hosts 6m and 70cm beams. For 17-10m I use a separate base tuned 25' vertical that I made from scrap parts of old broken antennas. This one has elevated tuned radials for each band(4 per band) and it works well. The guy who questioned adding radials to his antenna and ho the swr got worse. This is normal, it means your antenna isn't resonant and has high losses without the radials. The more efficient the antenna the higher the Q goes and the narrower the bandwidth. I have 80 radials under one of my verticals and the bandwidth on the lower bands is very narrow, I had to adjust radial length to slide it into the portion of 80 and 160m I wanted to use. Before the radials I could tune the entire band... but I was also probably only getting ~3% of my power to radiate, rest was being wasted as heat... with the tuned radial field the efficiency of that antenna rises to around ~25-30%... verticals are notoriously inefficient when they are shorter than 1/4 wavelength. Car HF antennas for 160-40m may only be ~3-5% efficient, most of your power goes nowhere! The ARRL antenna book has a better explanation of this with more accurate percentages. I am going from my rather poor memory!

[@Seeker43]

Paint your vertical with "flat black" non reflecting paint it will camo most antennas from prying eyes.

[@jpbrown1963]

People think I am married to a Chinese woman but actually she is from the Philippines so I understand your situation

[@WJ6FRadio]

Great live stream! I turned my Diamond X-50A into an ugly fake house plant as my HOA said antennas weren't allowed, but there are no rules agains ugly fake plants. For HF I will usually leave it up for a day or two.

[@TomMarkz]

I’m new to this. Can A HF radio transmit on uhf/vhf on the same Hf antenna or do you need a separate antenna for uhf/vhf?

[@vne2328]

HOA discussion starts at 7:00. Antenna discussion starts at 14:05.

[@submarineradioman5535]

So... can you make a vertically polarized gain Yagi and camouflage it as a Menorah? You’ll be able to increase gain for 8 days!

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Hahaha. That is a multi layered joke sir.

[@moondog_radio]

Google says that the greyline antenna folks have many complaints against them. Like taking the money but not shipping the product.

[@J4ckieD]

Thanks for the ideas. I have plenty of space & places. No HOA. just getting started & not ready to permanently mount anything yet.

[@michaelchambers7691]

The good thing is, I got a backyard and garage to my townhome. Don't get a condo or townhome without a backyard. There's a pro and con with HOAs. I'm very happy with my townhome, lots of pros with my place.

[@samreynolds9925]

Alternative title: "Antennas to convince your mom to let you have after you get your general"

[@andrewhemenway5106]

🤣

[@TheShadowCamo]

we're lucky in Canada, the CRTC rules over antenna law. Even if your municipality has bylaws against antennas. With an amateur radio license you're entitled to pursue your hobby including putting up an antenna , as long as it doesn't overhang others property, or cause interference. So you may not be able to have an amp but you can usually always have some decent antenna.

[@RTD3]

I live on the bottom floor of a 4-story condo complex with very strict "no antennas" HOA rules. I ran an endfed (MyAntennas 60 ft.) between two roof peaks and 150' of coax into the living room and work the world. Nobody but the maintenance guy and I know it's there. Too easy.

[@bulote]

The End-fed is in your living room or outside ?

[@shawnp6653]

Fan dipole in the attic for me - compromise, but it works!

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

It does indeed!

[@gregorycollins3096]

I have 6 palm trees over 80 feet tall. Any ideas for that?

[@K4SRF]

I have lived in a HOA for 20 years. They don't allow pickup trucks, trailers (vacation or work,) parking on the street, no more than two vehicles per household and external antennas. (These bylaws are over 30 years old.) There are now neighbors with pickup trucks, trailers, (work,) and some with 3 or more vehicles. Parking on the street happens all the time. I raised an antenna. Granted, it's not a tower, but you can see it mounted to my roof, (I used an existing dish roof mount,) if you look from the street. No one better say a damn word to me about it either.

[@ropeguy20]

Would an HAO have jurisdiction of a trailer, if not have a trailer mounted antenna then you wouldn't have to move the trailer and not worry about the cable of on a car.

[@michaelchambers7691]

I also live near an Intermountain Intertie, I only need an HT on low power with a crappy rubber ducky antenna. MikeC, KN6KRB

[@chuckk5358]

Thanks for the show Josh. Our HOA is presided over by a woman we've nicknamed Attila the Hen. We're trying to impeach. I was wondering if a tilt-up mast on a trailer might fall into the same category as a vertical mounted on my car? I have a chance to get a mast from a portable light plant (like they use on road construction) for cheap. Maybe I can get the trailer too.

[@PaulaBean]

Why-o-why were HOA's invented? To put extra misery on people, beside taxes and death?

[@slik560]

Build a Santa & reindeer display on the roof that doubles as a super antenna and leave it up all year round!

[@PaulaBean]

Might want to replace it with an easter bunny now and then ;-)

[@prephampaul]

I converted my Hustler 6btv into a flagpole with a lightweight flag and zip ties. I posted it in a short on my channel, quick view. 6 years running, no one is the wiser.

[@jasonvincent1818]

Have my first 10 meter band radio on the way. My question is: can I run a dipole vertically under the eves of my house and get descent action?

[@billloveless6869]

I missed this broadcast, however I do have a question or two. 1. Will a end feed antenna against the house work? I'll be using 2 meter and 70 cm. 2. I have a Baofeng BF-F8 , listing on 146.835 in NE PA. Last week I was listening and heard two stations. One said he was in London England and the other was in BC Canada. How is that possible?

[@lyfandeth]

They're a last resort, but even the ARRL has previously (way back) published on hoisting a long wire by box kite or helium balloon. Tethered balloon, only raised when in use. Betcha the HOA missed writing rules to ban that.

[@davidsradioroom9678]

Excellent topic, and an excellent presentation! Thank you! ! 👍👍👍

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Thank you for watching!

[@tamccullough88]

Been in the bad habit of bringing up old threads lately. HERE WE GO AGAIN! I am in the process of getting a setup for hf and working on my general. I am not allowed to put up any sort of antenna outside and require any "structure" that is put up to be approved by the fabulous hoa (mine has been known to fine people for having satellite dishes in view even though the dish could not go anywhere else) and I am limited on space in my "attic" crawl space area above the second floor. My question is, could I do a fan dipole where one of the dipoles is a folded dipole? I would be running a Kenwood ts-520 with a mod to lower the power significantly. Would love to be able to get on 10m, 15m, and 20m bands, but I am afraid the 20m might be too long for my house if I do a normal fan dipole. What are your thoughts?

[@thompo9278]

HERE IS THE SOLUTION TO THE HOA PROBLEM---JOIN THE HOA BOARD AND PACK IT WITH HAMS, THEN REVISE THE LAWS, WORKED FOR ME

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Yes Robert, this is the way.

[@tamccullough88]

I will have to try this in my neighborhood, we have a few hams, need to actually chat with them.

[@ironbutterflyify]

i just got a 10 meter radio whats the best antenna to use wrvt273 new at this

[@stephensuter5016]

any way you can post your slide show as a stand alone?

[@stridermt2k]

While I don't have an association where I live, I am in a townhouse so I do have some considerations, mostly for space some for aesthetics: *I have a quad band 40/20/15/10 end fed half wave antenna in our back yard that I use 67 or so feet of dark green wire on and it blends very nicely with the treeline behind the houses. The wire is run from an MFJ window adapter with the match box placed inside the window. *The window adapter also allows for a small ADS-B airplane tracking antenna that has worked very well despite its less than optimal placement. In my attic I'm running: *an MFJ -1786 loop *a VHF/UHF vertical dipole *a wide-band discone antenna That's a bunch of antennas in a fairly limited space and with very little visibility. -and at that anything view-able is only at the rear of the house. Do your research, be creative, and be patient...oh wait that's everything with ham radio I forgot! HI HI Awesome video Josh, thanks!

[@mikethees6434]

Not in a HOA yet but my dipole from the road is pretty much invisible from the road rg8 into stripped romex de KD2RVW

[@kevinrhodes9329]

Hello from Billings MT

[@danialphaomega]

I hid mine in the inner roof lining of the edge roof skirt on the 2nd story, and NO ONE was the wiser. Reamber your roof has soo much area. Fuck the HOA! Hahahaha

[@billstarr5395]

The FCC will sue your HOA. The HOA tried to keep us from putting up direct tv dishes. After the FCC got done with them you could put one in your front yard and paint it orange. You have a right to receive radio.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Covered it in the video. Otard only covers dishes and tv antennas. Not hf radio antennas.

[@HBTwoodworking]

Has anyone started making the Ventenna again? - Phil KM4UTV

[@jameswong8583]

Hi Josh, Do you have more info on the modified satellite antenna? Thanks James

[@mikeklemens8970]

Great talk and advice for your listeners Josh! Mike N6IMY

[@donsugg4048]

There is Athena that is a tri band made out of pvc pipe

[@cmvb69]

Would a roll up slim jim work in an attic hooked up to a world radio receiver ?

[@jasonmountain4643]

Not in an HOA, but still have Tyrant CC&R's Grr.

[@juligrlee556]

I'm interested in the point effect of the antenna. Would you have a recommendation for antenna book to help me understand what is happening with antennas, both the small ones that transmit to garage door openers, the antennas used with oscillators transmitting HF radio waves used with medical equipment. Do I need to take a class at college? How about a good book recommendation.

[@RemoteAbductionArm]

Woody just straight ass put a big 'tenna all up in they hissy

[@donsugg4048]

What is the best way to put up an attena on my rain gutter

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Generally tap the downspout with a wire and connect to the center pin on your feed line. Then run a radial along the perimeter of your home. Then just make adjustments as needed. Ideally you should use a tuner to make it all work correctly.

[@jameskohnke6239]

Josh, I'm curious what apps you use to host hour You-tube channel where you can have a green screen background, an image of you and the chat listing. Thanks for your work 73 W6VAR

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

I use OBS

[@1_lens_view]

I’m a ham and a board member on an HOA board. HOAs are typically created, and the bylaws implemented, by developers to drive and protect real estate values. This is not an inherently bad or evil thing. Everyone wants to get the most out of their investment, and many people like other amenities HOAs can provide. Boards generally don’t write the rules, but they have a fiduciary responsibility to enforce them. Additionally, it’s very difficult for a board to change the rules (or create new ones) with most bylaws requiring a two-thirds vote by the homeowners. That’s why they call it a homeowners association. I know you and others may disagree, but most boards I know are not “little tyrants,” and many HOAs will go of their way to accommodate the needs of the residents in their community. After all, the HOA exists for the collective benefit of its residents and not to create an adversarial living environment. Nobody wants the stress or associated costs. But at the same time, as board members, they have a legal responsibility to do their job. Our bylaws don’t expressly prohibit antennas; they restrict the installation to prevent installations that detract from the aesthetics of the neighborhood. More and more bylaws are adopting more permissive stances on this issue. It just might take a little creativity. So my advice is approach your board with a partnering attitude and open mind. You might be surprised by what you are able to accomplish.

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

“Might be surprised” is code for “probably not”

[@kirkgoins7214]

Just watched this video and was thinkinig about using the Ridge Vent along the top pf my roof. IT would be about 45ft. What are you thoughts? Thanks

[@HamRadioCrashCourse]

Just make sure you are securing the antenna as best as possible and take care to protect if it comes down where it would fall.

[@kirkgoins7214]

I can;t come down. Let me explain better. Traditionally attics are ventilated by cutting holes in the roof and avents iare installed ( square,or round and typically metal. In recent years, where practical those are not used. Instead where the roof joins at the top it doesn't. This leaves a gap. This gap then has a metal cover installed over it which allows air to escape and keeps water etc out. In my case I live in a simple split-level rectangle shaped house with a very simple roof. My vent is approx. 45ft in length and since it is at the very top of my roof, I was thinking it would to better than a gutter for an HF ant.

[@billy9788]

Hi from uk

[@JamesSasso]

brilliant, buy a scrap tiny sail boat, park it on your drive, erect a ludicrously tall antenna mast.. "oh this? no it's a new light weight mast for sailing"

[@dustyrhodes1655]

Im in a HOA with zero trees on my property....thats Ok I have a giant shielded attic. I do have a 2m/70cm on my roof though. Great video! KI5GYS

[@heyheyjaytube]

satellite dish antenna 📡

[@ghostlight69420]

Needs more aCrOnYmS

[@ответкарман]

Чувак, я нихера не понял что ты сказал, но твои слова задели меня за живое и я тебе помогу!)))

[@jamesbrownmiller808]

Simple solution, don’t buy a home in an HOA! Had enough trouble with the town I live in decades ago!

[@tonytyler6390]

don;t move into an hoa.. it is that simple... no one forces one to move into an hoa and sign that deal.....i choose to not be run by communist hoa so i stay out of the contract with one.. but a really cool video none the less.. tony t. n0amy.

[@brazenbull636]

Yall deserve your tyranny. Wtf would anyone willingly join an HOA community is beyond me.. That said, as a ham you are exempt from their rules on your antenna. Use your power and do as you please

[@jpbrown1963]

My call is ks4ww john p. Brown