Installation of a Wire Antenna in my Small Attic

As previously mentioned, I've recently built my first wire antenna. In order to really test it, I decided to skip the step of a temporary outdoor deployment, and just go ahead and put it in to it's final location. It was a lot of work, but I've gotten a lot better at things, and I'd say overall it works pretty well. Also, as previously mentioned, my antenna is longer than my attic, so I had do so some creative bending to get it all to fit in there correctly. Overall, I'd say it worked pretty well. The initial deployment only took me 30 minutes, plus a bit of time to feed the antenna line. Much better than the last time, for sure!

Antenna Layout

Mission Accomplished!

As I've mentioned here a few times, I really have wanted to get an antenna up in my attic. This has a few really nice advantages. First of all, it allows me to have a permanent home for my antenna. I've been having to manually position my antenna closer to the window when I need to use it, causing a potential trip hazard. Secondly, it gets it above the aluminum siding of my home. There are all sorts of issues with that, but basically, it really blocks signal badly. Lastly, I wanted to use my new Arrow J-pole, which doesn't require an RF ground, as it is a balanced antenna. That allows me to greatly simplify my set up.

Finding a Good Indoor Antenna

As previously mentioned, I am currently running a small antenna indoors that is really meant to be a car antenna. It has some serious limitations. People assure me that I should be able to make contact with a good antenna with only a few watts, I find myself having to go up to as much as 30 for what should only take 5 sometimes...

Studying the attic

Amateur Radio has the opportunity to take me places I've never been before. Today, I managed to visit one such of these places. That place was my attic.

I should state before I even begin that this is still very much a work in progress. I've been wanting to put antennas up in my attic for a while, with the goal of improving my range, plus it would seem to be a convenient place to place an HF antenna. I poked my head up there for the first time to see what I had to work with, and I took a few pictures to show to everyone.