From: gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman)
Subject: Re: New
Reply-To: gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman)
Organization: Gannett Technologies Group
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 14:01:41 GMT

In article <Bxo9y4.Fwo@acsu.buffalo.edu> v067njbx@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Erik Werner) writes:
>great hobby, but I've just ran into my first problems.  I checked out of my
>university library some basic ham books which have been great on general info,
>but they are written circa 1960 which means that the schematics use vac. tubes,
>(not good) so if anyone has newer technology specs for BASIC transmitters/

Actually this may be good. Tubes are much more forgiving than solid state
devices, though the plate voltage *can* kill you if you don't practice basic
electrical safety. Building tube equipment is fun, real radios glow in the
dark. Try a 2 or 3 tube design, you may love it.

>receivers, please email me for my address. Also, I found out that CW will be
>the way to start off, so it looks like learning the dit-dah alphabet will
>be the order of the day come X-mass. Now here comes the rub, before I start

CW is fine, but AM isn't much harder for transmitters, especially with
tubes. And receivers are slightly easier for AM, it's fun too. Your best
DX range will be much less under most conditions of course, but that's ok
too if talking to people in the surrounding states strikes your fancy.
AM is still quite popular on 160 meters, an interesting band, and you'll
also find some activity on 80 meters, and quite a bit on 10 meters. The
more traditional DX bands of 40, 20, and 15 will have little or no AM
activity, but your rig will also do CW of course so that's not a big
deal. Building any kind of voice rig is a big thrill to many people,
don't limit yourself to only CW unless that's your specialty interest.

>to construct the tx/rx (correct lingo?) I have to errect an antena. Bad news,
>I live off campus on the lower level of a two story house. I have neighbors 
>at 8 ft of either side of me. How high does the antena have to be? I don't
>think that my landlord will be too pleased to see me stringing wire all over
>his backyard (a total of 3 square feet of backyard) or from the house to the 
>garage (oh, about 4 ft in distance) Also, I live in Buffalo, the land of 
>snow (today we got some lake effect and everything is white) and high winds.
>What can I do? Can I string wire inside my room, maybe taped to the cieling?
>I guess that's it, again I want to thank all of you who are so helpful to me.

Well naturally the higher the better is a truism for antennas, but almost
*anything* can be made to radiate after a fashion. I assume you intend to
build HF equipment rather than VHF/UHF. The size problem is much less as
you go up in frequency. I've used a 90 foot long wire only six feet off
the ground on all the HF bands. It worked well enough to work all states
with a 75 watt transmitter, but is far from ideal. Others have loaded up
metal awning frames and even bedsprings. One of the advantages of tube
equipment is that you can usually match an odd impedance easier than with
solid state equipment where you usually need a separate tuner.

For 15 and 10 meters, an indoor antenna taped to the ceiling can
work fairly well. But for 80 and 40, you really need more room. One
trick that works pretty well is to nail up a wire around the eaves of
the house, assuming a wood or brick house. You need 66 feet of wire on
40 meters, and you can usually get that. The wire can lay right against
the house, though it's better if you can space it out a bit.  20 meters
is really a challenge with low power and poor antenna. I'd advise staying
off of there until you gain experience or the high power boys with the
monster monobanders at 120 feet will kill you.

If the landlord is cooperative, a half wave vertical could be installed
up along the side of the house. That would be your best DX bet if you can't
put a decent antenna on the roof. You don't need a fancy commercial antenna,
just a wire run from the roof peak down to the ground will do. A link
coupled transmitter would be good to feed this high impedance antenna,
or you could build a tuner right at the antenna base. By making the antenna
a half wave, you can avoid having to bury a bunch of radials. Use insulated
wire anywhere people can come in contact with the antenna. On the lower
bands, you could extend this antenna into an inverted L by running a wire
along the roof peak and tying it to the top of your vertical. Depending on
the size of the house, that might even work for 160 meters.

By keeping the wire size small and tucked close to the house, many 
different wire antennas can be constructed unobtrusively in situations
where you don't have access to a large yard or tall trees.

Gary KE4ZV