N3FNE (Pete)'s Blog

I mentioned awhile ago that I was putting together a new shack and that the furniture had arrived. Next, I bought an MFJ-1622 apartment antenna and a window feed-through system. Well, it isn’t like having a beam. Originally, I had hope to attach the antenna in a “hidden” corner of the house to the gutter system but the attachment bracket on the antenna would not allow me to hook it onto the gutter bracket. After trying all sorts of options that would not punch a hole in either the gutter or the roof, I decided to try something else. I took an old 6 foot aluminum step ladder, set it up on the back patio, and hooked the antenna to the top step. Then I laid out the counterpoise and the first station I worked was in Cuba on 20 meters. I could hear a friend a few hundred miles away on 17 meters, but he could not hear me. On 2 meters SSB during the recent ARRL VHF contest, I could hear a station in grid EM82; I’m in EM83, but I wasn’t able to catch him. I could also hear check-ins to the 3905 Century Net on 40 meters. Alas, 15 to 6 meters seems to be a propagation wasteland. When I’m not playing with the radio, I fold the ladder up with the antenna attached, roll up the counterpose and the cable and hide the whole contraption under the roof covering the patio. I have antenna restrictions and don’t want to leave the evidence out. The MFJ antenna window feed through works great. I had to cut the wood it is mounted in to fit the window, but otherwise installation was easy. If you have a Facebook account, you can see pictures of the process of putting the antenna together to final operation on the Unofficial Ten-Ten International Net group page.