Original article from: Wayne Sarosi 
 Reposted by Rob Dennis,Moderator HAM_TECH,for use of the FIDO HAM_TECH echo.
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SUBJECT: VHF & UHF Hidden antennas for PUDs/Condos/Apartments
 These antennas are much easier to hide because of their size.
 I'll get into some high level design concepts here and expound on them 
ater.
 I'll be discussing the following antennas:
  o     Stealth Verticals
  o     Stealth Beams
  o     Indoor Antennas
  o     Indoor/Outdoor use of Mobile Antennas
  o     Field Day / Portable
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Stealth Verticals:
 This type of VHF / UHF antenna is very popular with amateurs. The are easy 
o
build and install. Many commercial antennas are available,but for the dollar,
an amateur can build a superior VHF or UHF antenna for the base or mobile 
se.
 For the PUD/Condo/Apartment user,even a simple vertical can be a major
problem to install.
 Location in an apartment may be one of the biggest problems facing an 
mateur
when antennas are prohibited.
 There are large multi-element verticals on the market such as those made by
Comet and Diamond. The size of these antennas makes these a bit more 
ifficult
to install. There are other homebrew antennas that can be installed however.
 These antennas will be discussed here.
J-Pole:
 The J-Pole is an exceptionally good antenna and easy to build if the
directions in the ARRL handbook are followed correctly. One modification I
recomend for the J-Pole is to solder the tuning connections after the SWR is
set. This allows for 'no maintenance' on the J-pole and no surprizes with SWR
changes due to corrosion.
1/4, 3/4 wave ground planes:
 These ground planes offer unity and 3dB respecfully. These antennas do not
need coils or tuning circuits to accomplish their action.
Discones:
 This antenna can be homebrewed or bought commercially. The discone is an
excellent antenna, but has it's drawbacks in hiding. The antenna has unity
gain and can be used on multiple bands.
Vertical Dipole:
 This antenna can be put together in various configurations with various
matching devices. The dipole is a halfwave.
Full Wave Loop:
 This antenna can be configured to vertical polarization. It is not omni, but
exhibits good gain in a bidirectional pattern.
 There are many more antennas that exist. Some are larger,some don't have the
bandwidth, and still others require coils & capacitors to make them work.
 The aboved mentioned antennas are easy to homebrew and make for good 
ntennas
that can be used by PUD / Condo / Apartment dwellers. All the above antennas
are in the ARRL antenna book. The design and construction of these antennas 
s
easy if the directions are followed in the book.
 What I intend to accomplish here is placing the antennas such that they go
unseen by all.
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INSTALLATION OUTSIDE:
 Let's look at the first one: The J-Pole.
 Gain wise,this antenna exhibits about 1.8 bDi of gain on transmit / recieve.
 If you make your J-Pole from brass rod or a like material,placement of the
antenna should be accomplished fairly easy. You should remember not to 
nstall
the antenna near other metal objects or fixtures. Give it about three feet of
room from conducting surfaces.
 The best hidden J-Pole I've seen was painted to match the chimney brick 
ork.
 Everything that went with the antenna was matched to the chimney.
 The coax was painted to match not only the chimney,but the roof and then the
paint color on the side of this PUD home. The J-Pole was bent to the contours
of the brickwork and masonery.
 The amateur installed the antenna under the cover of cleaning and repairing
the chimney. His plan worked well.
 Another J-Pole I've (almost) seen was mounted to side of a tree at 30 feet.
 It too was painted to match the bark of the tree.
 I designed and built a J-Pole for a friend that looked and matched the
foliage of a white pine. I used artificial plastic Christmas tree elements
to match a branch on the pine tree. If you didn't see where it was installed,
you couldn't tell it from the rest of the tree.
 Another design was mounted to a swing out arm which was installed under a
window sill at 30 feet. The Ham painted the J-Pole to match the natural wood
finish on the condo. At night,he would swing the J-Pole out from the window
and talk on the local repeaters.
 The dark color of the J-Pole,helped the amateur,by blending the antenna
against the night sky.
*** END PART ONE ***
-WS
--- GoldED 2.42.G1219
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