By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU
\nRecently, a reader asked:
\nI am studying your \u201cNo Nonsense\u201d book as I prep for the Technician test. I am also learning CW. I am going to buy a Yaesu FT 450D as my first radio, and I want to use an indoor antenna as my first antenna. What do you recommend for CW?
\nI replied:
\nTo be honest, I\u2019ve never had a lot of luck with indoor antennas. Don\u2019t let that dissuade you, though. I have worked many hams with indoor antennas. Just recently, for example, I worked a guy who was using a Buddipole (http:\/\/www.buddipole.com\/) inside his apartment.
\nIf you have an attic, you could easily install a dipole up there. The ARRL web page on indoor antennas (http:\/\/arrl.org\/indoor-antennas) notes:
\n\u201cAttics are great locations for indoor antennas. For example, you can install a wire dipole in almost any attic space. Don\u2019t worry if you lack the room to run the dipole in a straight line. Bend the wires as much as necessary to make the dipole fit into the available space.
\n\u2026.
\n\u201cLadder-line fed dipoles are ideal for attic use\u2014assuming that you can route the ladder line to your radio without too much metal contact. In the case of the ladder-line dipole, just make it as long as possible and stuff it into your attic any way you can. Let your antenna tuner worry about getting the best SWR out of this system.\u201d
\nThere are plenty of remote tuners now, too. You could install a doublet with elements as long as you can make them, connect them directly to the remote tuner, and then run coax to your shack.
\nI have also worked guys who have used Slinky antennas inside a house. The advantage of using a Slinky is that it is electrically longer than a wire of the same length.
\nAn attached garage might also make a good location for an indoor antenna. VE3SO, who I\u2019ve worked several times, uses a magnetic loop antenna installed in his garage (https:\/\/www.kb6nu.com\/magnetic-loop-antenna-at-ve3so\/).
\nIf you do a web search for \u201cindoor amateur radio antennas,\u201d you\u2019ll get many more ideas. Here are a few that looked promising to me:
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Indoor antenna for 7 Mhz (http:\/\/www.iw5edi.com\/ham-radio\/37\/indoor-antenna-for-7-mhz)
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0An Indoor Reduced Size Rectangular Loop (http:\/\/hamuniverse.com\/kl7jrindoorloop4010.html)<\/p>\n
Another option might be to load up your gutters! I\u2019ve worked a couple of guy who use gutter antennas, including WA8KOQ (https:\/\/www.kb6nu.com\/operating-notes-gutter-antenna-rac-contest-161-countries-worked\/) and K3DY (https:\/\/www.kb6nu.com\/operating-notes-computer-virus-club-net-gutter-antenna\/).
\nThis blog post garnered a couple of interesting comments. K2MUN wrote, \u201cFor many years I\u2019ve used an attic mounted off-center fed 40 meter dipole. With an automatic antenna tunner and a 4:1 balun I\u2019ve worked lots of dx with both qrp and, more easily, 100 watts! Certainly, outdoors is much superior but an attic is a nice location in bad weather making playing with your antenna a pleasure :-).
\nJohn, KD0JPE, said, ‘If you have an attic available, check out the following 6-band coax trap-based antenna: http:\/\/degood.org\/coaxtrap\/. I constructed one of these 9 years ago and have had great results with it.
\nThe bottom line is that indoor antennas can definitely work. They may take more work to put up than outside antennas, but as the saying goes, \u201cAny antenna is better than no antenna.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Can Indoor Antennas Work? Yes! By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU Recently, a reader asked: I am studying your \u201cNo Nonsense\u201d book as I prep for the Technician test. I am also learning CW. I am going to buy a Yaesu FT …<\/p>\n