I made two contacts from the US to the UK the other day with a 65" piece of gutter downspout taped to a rafter in my attic, and tuned up with a tuner. Indoor antennas can actually work fairly well.

That was actually me I think Fred.. I spoke to you using it. No choice but to run the home made T2lt in the loft and down through the hatch at the moment . I manage to get the SWRdown to 1.7 unless it rains then it goes very high. CT4089.

Hi Fred. I'm not all surprised at the results. I have a Flowerpot antenna for 2m and 70cm built in a length of 22mm waste pipe on the roof of my house. It beats the expensive Comet vertical which also has 6m on it. It cost next to nothing to make and have QSO's on 2m well into Europe when the conditions are right. Antennas are commercially made to make companies money. The Flowerpot is also a form of Bazooka. Great video Fred!

The guy who said "anyone who uses the radio these days there's something wrong with them" lol funny guy that made me chuckle. Great vid as always Fred very interesting experiment!

Fred, around 5PM your time another fellow in N Carolina was talking to folks in your neighborhood, so time is about right for a talk across the pond.? It is getting to a point where going off the channels may be necessary to get a clear place to talk. The fellow was "mower junkie" channel. He was working Germany and the UK with lots of other folks in the background. 140 is his call 38 LSB.

I love these stories about stealth antennas and how people ‘get out’ on homebrew stuff 🙂 It’s a good idea to get started and better than a biscuit tin set up. I had a T2LT in an inverted v shape in my loft and it got me out until I got something up outside. 👍🏼

I set up a 102 inch antenna in a German flat. That's where I got several check ins from UK in UK 40 fm only. This was in the 90's. Fred, I've already been there done that. Am, ssb, fm, am stereo. Yes, I did that as well. We WILL eventually speak on 305. Any mode.

Hi Fred. Yup I’ve done the same! (To my wife’s disgust 😆). Hawkins 1/2 wave antenna from the attic through the door and dropped down the stairs to the rig. No swr adjustment required. Spot on at 1.2. Super stealth and no problems with the effects of the weather blowing your antenna about! Been using this for the past couple of years. 👍

Thats the fun part of radio throwing pieces of wire together and making an antenna

I think anything beloew 10 watts should be fine. Obviously the lower the better but at 4 watts should be a problem. I have my Radio Ham antenna (UHF/VHF) in my old bedroom as I live in a block of flats ! I have never had any problems except for green flashing lights in my head and alien voices..

Strange things do happen, Fred, before I purchase my home I was living in an apartment complex I had an Antron running along the rails of the stairs from the lower floor to the upper floor, I had to create a few winding to get the SWR to a 1.2, I had contacts all over Europe even had contact with South Africa, I chat with some fellows from the Whiskey Radio groups, my friend he had a quad dipole in his living room ceiling pointing in 4 direction and he had a QSO from the Philippines, to be honest, these were extra channels with less noise using the older Superstar 3900, I now have that radio hoping to do a refurbish to it , so weird things do happen, cheers ( I did my contact with an HR 2510)

I did exactly the same thing for about two weeks!! I couldn't wait to get my first contacts, so slung the T2lT up in the loft and it reached down onto the landing when fully extended! I tried and tried, however the SWR was high and it had a very limited range, as the T2lT needs lots of space around it. A true performer, but only n the right location, so I'll be testing mine again this year.

You could try winding it onto a bit of PVC pipe the exact height of your loft, to make a helical antenna, like a big rubber ducky lol

I live in open space very windy an bad weather I use a antron in summe an my t2l2 cable ties to plastic gutter pipe on house in bad weather work really well

FRED IN THE SHED CB is cool

Nice homebrew Fred, take a duster to that Alinco while you’ve got it out. ;-)

wouldn't mess around like that if it was me.. 7ft firestick on a ground plane is what I used.. worked surprisingly well.

I have had great results with full length vertical dipoles when they were properly elevated. On 20 meters a vertical dipole with the bottom hanging down to only about 10 meters of elevation worked most of the U.S. and in to Japan and Northern Europe from the Eastern U.S. So HF vertical polarization with a vertical dipole is a very effective combination.. Add an inverted-V for the bottom of the HF band and you can work great distances even during this portion of the solar cycle.

Just bung approx 10/11 meters of antenna wire with a 49:1 unun at the shack end out of an upstairs window (especially if you have a nearby tree or bush to route through) . Configuration does not matter. Works pretty well.

It's always fun experimenting.

Nice little radio

I've done the same Fred in the loft but I put it in a w shape configuration and I was S4 16mile away Swr sat at 1.3 so full t2lt w config 👍🏻👍🏻

My first qso was on a whip on 20 meters into Italy on 5 watts a couple of years ago was well chuffed

FRED IN THE SHED I lisn to shortwave and ssb iam thinking about getting my ham license I have 4 shortwave receivers my hobbys are painting pictures

Fred, I run a inverted v antenna at 5watts pep, just fine for CB

Surprised the noise floor is so low with this antenna in the house with PLT and LED lights etc. Mag loop would be good antenna in attic and could rotate to reduce local noise.

How high is it up in the peak of your loft? ... Is it 12 feet? 306.3/27.305 = 11.212 meters. A /\ triangular delta loop hung by it's top to the top of the loft and fed at or near the bottom corner. A 75 ohm cable transformer can be made to match the 2-1 mismatch. e. g. Say RG-59A/U Foam (Belden 8241F) velocity factor = 78. 246 x 0.78 = 191.88 divided by 27.305 = 7.0 feet / 2.1336 Meters. Put one end of the transformer at the feed point (pigtails) and the other end to your feedline. Should be able to get a fair distance with it.

Hallo Fred, i have also a selfmade Wire Groundplane (sounds like "Schweißfuß GP") in my second Room. Its mirical, the Antenna works better as my Santiago1200 or Boomerang outside on my Balkony.73

Try a 1/4 ca 270 cm long mobile stick plus ground plain in the loft.

That's great you made your antenna wire to work in the loft if I knew someone around my qth that would make me one I would give it a go 73s 26ct 2395 Gainsborough

Stranger things have been done to get on the air lol

Hello,I took the measerments of a V dipole wire and put it horizontal indoor rooftoplevel,a splitter from Amaz and on Js8 been making a distance of 1300 km. Today no outside antenna anymore (friday storm) RingLemm gave up (have pictures gone send them on Z).So now on the wire :(

Ferd in the shed do you have ham license

have you got any idea how to wire mikes up to the C.B. ive got 2 usb lsb am fm radios ive got 4 mikes with all amounts of wires some have 6 wires some less and i need them wireing up and have no idea how to do it.

hi do you know anything about cb firestik 11 for a home base out side please

low incoming due to the attic screening metalic insulation silver foil Doh

is that Alinco ok to use on cb radio?

This is nuts, transmitting so close to the antenna sure it's fun, but not recommended!!!!!! By the way you are not tuning the antenna, you are just lowering the impedance!!!