Stealth Ham Antenna Beat HOA

[Nemo]

This looks most interesting.  Gents educate me some please.

Nemo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CQ3WDcfYBU

[Kbop]

so,
he used coax  insulated with color matching vinyl.  (you can paint over the coax too)
looks like he's using a buried ground reference.
his bird house is used to disguise his antenna "in plain view".  the insulator on the guy wire marks one end of the antenna - its a simple long wire type.  http://www.ultimax-antennas.com/products.html
might be cool to put a 2 meter antenna inside the bird house and run the X-mit line inside the pole (LMR240 would work).
if you are in a gnarly mood, make the shaft of the birdhouse fiberglass - its invisible to radio.

if you want a cool low profile antenna - for higher frequencies, try a moxon antenna.
http://www.wb5cxc.com/10mmoxon.html

or you can do what a lot of city hams do - put the antenna on the roof of the apartment building.
or in the attic of your house - asphalt shingles don't block the signal much.

one trick cell carriers do is hide their antennas inside a flag pole - any resistance to the installation is met with a 'You are not patriotic' attack. 

with the covers off.

[Nemo]

So what he did was cost effective, reliable and functional?

It could have been done other ways with the same result but the demonstrated method was effective?

Nemo

[Jackalope]

   It got the signal out, so I guess it was effective, not sure how efficient it was.  As Kbop mentioned, antennas can be placed under shingles, in the attic, inside plastic gutter systems, along fences etc.  In most cases, a good tuner will match up random wires.  When I was a kid I used my steel bedsprings as an antenna, it wasn't efficient, but it worked.  Flagpole antennas are pretty common.  The ARRL also has a book on stealth antennas, and if I remember correctly there are some guerilla antennas books too.  I'll look them up later.

[JohnyMac]

NCSCOUT over at the Brushbeaters site turned me on to the book Portable Wire Antennas by John Hill (KF7SQQ).

Our clubs president put up a Delta dipole antenna. Which is basically a wire cut to the wave length for the frequency you wish to hit. Think thirds as I describe it.

The wire was a total of 65 feet long divided/market in thirds which means that each section was ~22'. At the middle 1/3 points he attached an insulator to these spots. We attached para cord to each of these insulators. Shot the para cord via potato gun over opposite apposing trees and hoisted the wire about 22' or so. Now you have the center 22 feet suspended and two hanging 22 foot sections.

We brought the two hanging 22' section together to a piece of plexiglass insulator that had two separate holes that each end of the 22' wire went through separate holes. The separated 22' wires were then attached to "ladder line".

Now you have what looks like a "D"  rotated 90 degrees with a ladder line hanging down from the center of the curved ")" part of the "D".

We then went back to the paracord and hoisted this inverted "D" antenna up till the "I" flat side (Now up) was tight and parallel to the ground. The flat side of the "D" was ~35' off the ground.

Fastened the end of the ladder line to a tuner and VIOLA, he had an antenna up which he worked 20, 40, and 80 meters all Field Day weekend but only took us about 25' of space vs. the 65' if we didn't turn it into a Delta Antenna.

He got over 300 contacts using CW and phone during the 24 hour event. He also got connections from 40 or 41 states.

Maybe someone can find on line and post here the directions for this antenna as I am sure my directions are poor. 

[Jackalope]

Johny, you're describing a Delta Loop antenna, which are low noise antennas.  Here's a website that is devoted to them: http://w5sdc.net/delta_loop_for_hf.htm   And here's the link for the stealth antennas: http://www.arrl.org/shop/Stealth-Antennas-2nd-Edition  I'm going to order a copy, you never know when you're going to need it.