TEOTWAWKI Antennas

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ARRL Rocky Mountain Division update -- March 2012
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This month we look at an interesting bit of fun Mark Brueggemann K5LXP of Albuquerque, New Mexico had, in his own words:

Encouraged by excellent operating conditions on 10-meters during the CQWW contest in November 2011 where I operated using a less than unity gain antenna (a Yaesu ATAS antenna on the car driving back from Texas), I thought I would try something a little different for the ARRL 10-meter contest the following month -- compromise antennas.

I frequent a number of ham radio forums on the internet and a recurring theme is the ability, or rather inability to put up antennas whether it be an HOA restriction or an unsympathetic landlord or XYL (wife). I'm lucky enough to have a nice tower with a tribander on top but working the contest with that wouldn't be much of a challenge with band conditions
as good as they are. So I figured I'd make a point out of not only using a less than optimally-installed antenna, but specifically non-antennas. What objects do many people already have, and could be pressed into service as an antenna?

Looking around in my back yard there were three objects that seemed worthy. The barbecue grill, patio furniture, and the grandkids' swing set. I could've characterized each of these and come up with an optimum feed and matching setup but instead I chose what most hams would typically do: hook a piece of coax to it, and tune it in the shack with an antenna tuner.

First up was the steel patio furniture. I made a groundplane vertical of sorts by putting a chair on top of the table with wood between the feet and tabletop as an insulator. I prepared a 75 foot piece of RG-8x with some alligator clips on one end, then connected the center conductor to the chair and the shield to the table. Back in the shack the tuner was able to find a match, and I was on the air.

Now, before you think this is the answer to anyone's antenna troubles, I'm here to tell you this is not an ideal compromise antenna. Comparing the patio chair to my tri-bander showed a good 30-dB of difference. Compared to a dipole, this antenna turns 100 watts into 2 watts ERP. But, with a hot band, QRP (low power) can and does work. In the span of an hour, I made 36 contacts, mostly SSB, working 11 states and 5 DX locations (Brazil, Japan, Ukraine, Guam and Russia).

On Sunday, I clipped the coax to the swing set. Interestingly, this didn't seem to work as well as the patio furniture. Over 3 hours I managed to work 10 states (including Hawaii three times) and two DX (CO2 (Cuba) and KP2 (Virgin Islands)).

Discouraged by the performance of the swing set I switched to the barbeque grill. This was even worse than the swing set but due to shifting propagation late in the day I managed to snag a few JA's (Japan), Cayman Islands, Alaska and Hawaii both.

I don't recommend any of these as a permanent antenna. But I saw it as a challenge and wanted to prove a point that no matter what your limitations are, worldwide contacts with terrible antennas is not easy, but very possible. For about four total hours of operating I managed 63 contacts -- 19 states, 9 DX countries. Even a basic dipole or groundplane
vertical would've been a terrific performer compared to what I was using, so no matter how limited one thinks they are, I'm here to tell you working the world is possible with just about anything for an antenna when the bands are hot.