A good indoor aerial such a thing?

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radionortheast
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A good indoor aerial such a thing?

Post by radionortheast » Sun Apr 05, 2020 9:40 am

I know albert made a comment, about an aerial made from ladder line not been a good aerial to use in a loft, :lol: i'm just wondering, with everyone stuck indoors and with it not always possible to get an aerial outside if there was such a thing as a good indoor aerial. ;)

At the moment I can't get an aerial outside here, i'm using 5w and get about 1 - 2 miles coverage, i'm using a vertical aerial made from random aluminium bits of old aerials in the room i'm in..its better than nothing, suppose with there been not much to do i'm up for experimenting.

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yellowbeard
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Re: A good indoor aerial such a thing?

Post by yellowbeard » Sun Apr 05, 2020 3:54 pm

A directional antenna might be a better option so long as your listeners are all in one direction, or a colinear if you can wedge in 9 or 10 feet vertically. Gain is gain. Here is a Moxon antenna calculator:
http://www.w4.vp9kf.com/moxon_design.htm
Here is a design for a 144Mhz colinear:
http://85.226.178.87/antennas/6dbvhf0.htm
Both can be made from thick wire, with lengths of wood for support or strung up with string and thumbtacks seeing as you are indoors - that's one advantage you got! :tup

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Re: A good indoor aerial such a thing?

Post by NTRRadio » Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:46 pm

I don't think there is such a thing as good indoor antenna because no matter what you use, you lose loads of RF to your loft. An outside stealth antenna would perform much better,

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Re: A good indoor aerial such a thing?

Post by fmuser877 » Wed Apr 08, 2020 7:47 pm

5 to 10 watts OK if try going up to 30 then they maybe overload and hifis start buzzing even when playing cds.

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radionortheast
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Re: A good indoor aerial such a thing?

Post by radionortheast » Sun Apr 12, 2020 9:18 am

Thanks, just continuing to experiment with my vertical at the moment, only problem is I could do with a new transmitter, since static damaged my pcs transmitter last year, I replaced the final, it seems to have a mind of its own, the amount of power seems to come up and down, so testing any aerial might be out of the question, with the covid 19 I don't want to order. I'm torn between nrg 6w and pcs one, I was thinking of the 2015, I would just order another 3000+ they don't have any or have stopped making them, even considered the lowered powered pc card 3w but they only sell them in 10s, the newer pcs stuff isn't as good I don't think as it used to be.

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Re: A good indoor aerial such a thing?

Post by mikroman » Sun Apr 12, 2020 8:56 pm

Pcs 2015+ is on discount. It is decent board with flat audio response (better than 3000+ and 60xx series). Only thing that you must replace is 10uf caps with 4,7uf on PLL/VCO section (loop filter). Otherwise you ll hear rumble in audio. In Markos store (PCS) there is also very cheap gamma match dipole (siro brand). I use two for years on LPFM, and it works fine.

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radionortheast
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Re: A good indoor aerial such a thing?

Post by radionortheast » Mon Apr 13, 2020 9:47 am

Thanks I will problaly order it in the next few weeks, I used to use pawsey stub dipole (home made) which worked really well

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Re: A good indoor aerial such a thing?

Post by trancetechnic » Mon Apr 13, 2020 12:16 pm

I used a coat hanger (home made dipole) and It worked great! (London 10 watt TX VFO) Reports 15 + Miles (crow flies)
Height is Might ! (location, location!). Placing your antenna indoors is useless! Broadcast band is 'VHF' therefore = Line of sight !


Broadcasting year 1994. Pure FM 100.3MHz
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Re: A good indoor aerial such a thing?

Post by Albert H » Tue Apr 14, 2020 1:08 am

I've used all sort of improvised aerials, including loading a quarter-wave stub against the top of a scaffolding pole!

The "Tower-block sloper" was an incredibly efficient improvised wire aerial. If you got the "angle of dangle" right, it presented a 50Ω match!
"Why is my rig humming?"
"Because it doesn't know the words!"
;)

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