Not only did I get my antenna moved to a higher location, but my new radio arrived today! I haven’t even set up the radio yet, but the change in the antenna has made a world of difference!

 

This is the old antenna installation. It consists of a specially cut set of wires inside a 5′ PVC pipe. There is nothing wrong with the antenna itself, but I live on the first floor of a condo that is at about sea level. With antennas, higher is better. Although it is attached to an additional length of PVC and mounted on a fence, it is not high enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To add to my problems, I have this big old trash compactor next to my antenna installation. I don’t know if it caused any problems itself, but I doubt that it helps, and t suspect that it’s electrical connection may be causing some of my problems.

To make matters worse, communications on the frequencies I use are made using “repeaters,” (sort of analogous to cell towers). The repeater I am most interested in using is on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle and there is a very high hill between me and the repeater.  Another problem, not quite pinned down is loud noise coming from some electrical source near me. The static made it almost impossible for me to hear others who were using the repeater. I hoped that raising the antenna would reduce the noise problem.
This is a shot taken nearly straight up into the tree I wanted to put the antenna in. Since I live in a condo, I needed the HOA board’s cooperation to install the antenna. Even my original antenna setup was a violation of the rules,  I painted the antenna to match the color of our siding and it was very unobtrusive, so no one complained. The HOA board was cautious about letting me put an antenna in a tree. This is partly because I am on the board, and they didn’t want it to appear that there was favoritism. They wanted to be sure that the installation wouldn’t cause any damage or be unsightly. They asked for comments from the community on Facebokk, and the comments were either favorable or indifferent. My pitch to the community centered around the emergency preparedness benefits. I am involved in a local ham radio emergency group and I am learning as much as I can about how ham operators help in times of emergency. The installation was finally approved.

The next obstacle is that the tree I thought would be best for the installation turned out to be too close to the building. It was damaging the roof and had to be taken down. (The tree in the above picture is a different tree.) That led to a big project to inspect the entire grounds and to have a tree service do a major tree pruning, trimming and removal of some trees. The good news was that they would need a bucket truck to do some of the work, and they could install an pulley in a tree so that I could haul the antenna into the tree. The bad news was that I had to wait until the work got scheduled. All in all, I’ve been waiting to get this done since February for this project to get done. Today was the day!

Down came the old antenna. This is what it looks like, attached to an additonal section of PVC. I planned to replace the antenna PVC with a new piece painted to better blend with the tree. I don’t need the additional piece any more.

This is what it looks like outside of the pipe. A pretty simple looking piece of wire, engineered by professer at UC Santa Cruz and built by his students to raise funds.

This morning, the cavalry arrived!

Jason from the tree service headed up to the top of “my” tree. As a balloonist, I wished that I could go up in the bucket truck with him, but no such luck!

“My” tree is the one on the left. The one to the right of the windows is the one that had to come down. This is the 3rd floor unit. I’m on the first floor.

Here is Jason installing a pulley and some paracord near the top of the tree. The bottom of the antenna is about even with the eaves, so most of the antenna is above the roof line.

This is the new antenna before being raised. The new PVC is painted brown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the new antenna is the tree. The coax wire is more visible than the antenna.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the view from about 25 feet away. Would you notice the antenna if you weren’t looking for it? (Notice, the tree ion the right is now gone.

As soon as the antenna was up, I tested it. No noise and a clear signal to the repeater!  OMG! It’s wonderful! I haven’t even tried out the new, more powerful radio yet. I’m still using a handheld radio connected to this outside antenna. The new radio will have other benefits, and I will use the handheld for portable and emergency work. It should even work with the new radio to allow me to relay from my deck to the repeater, while I enjoy the nice weather we’ll be having someday.

Now that I can stop worrying about whether I can connect with other hams, it’s time to start studying for a license upgrade!