Ham Radio Attic Antenna Installation

Remote rf switch control box in the shack chooses which antenna is operational in the attic.

Ham radio attic antenna installation. It is normally very much easier to install a radio antenna in the attic or roof space than outside. On vhf a beam antenna can work well in the attic even a rotator can be used. You should then make the coax shield connect properly to the pl 259 connectors at each end. On hf wire beams can be run on the roof supports or the rafters these usually are good for one direction only but can be switched electrically for different coverage.

In the attic the antenna is not visible it is not exposed to weather and it can be installed without climbing onto your roof. The only concern with attic mounted antennas is the space available to you for mounting. Once all the yagis were bolted in place on the mast i used my antenna analyzer to adjust their driven elements to provide the best match in the weak signal portions of each band. Hide stuff in the closet one of the challenges you may encounter is getting the coaxial cable up into the attic.

Some radio hams have an attic antenna as a backup to their main antenna on the roof. Install a 9 1 unun at the antenna end of the coax. Installation of a wire antenna in my small attic as previously mentioned i ve recently built my first wire antenna. Unun stands for unbalanced coaxial line to unbalanced antenna.

The coax shield would then be properly terminated at both ends and stop being a rogue antenna. If the top of the antenna touches the walls or roof the performance may be affected slightly. For anyone who does not like heights this is a great advantage. Coaxial cable or coax os the.

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. Again stay away from metal and wires to maintain your pattern. All radio antennas need a radio feeder to transfer the energy to and from the antenna.