What antenna for this loft space?

[Lifted]

Hi all,

Just moved house and at some point will be unpacking my Anytone 6666 for a bit of fun on CB/11m when I get the chance, but I have the age old problem: I do not want to have an external antenna, but I do have a decent loft space, and already have lights and power sockets up there which makes things easier.

The house is in a fairly high rural location with reasonably clear views across the fells, so I'm hoping it will be an improvement on my old 'low down in a city centre' place!

The loft is just almost 15 metres long, and around 9 metres wide (that I can reach or access).

What do you suggest? an inverted V? A dipole running horizontally the length of the loft?

Any suggestions welcome.

[ch25]

As long as roof is dielectric you can use any antenna here

[Buick Mackane]

With a loft that big the options are endless

[Mudslinger]

No matter what loft antenna you use it will be very poor compared to even a fairly small and discrete outdoor antenna.

An Inverted V or 1/4 wave groundplane would work ok though if you are happy to talk local.

[Lifted]

As long as roof is dielectric you can use any antenna here

The roof is slate with standard felt. It isn’t foil insulated or anything like that.

There is foil insulation in the walls at either end, but hopefully that won’t matter too much.

Essentially it is all just wooden beams and slates.

[Lifted]

No matter what loft antenna you use it will be very poor compared to even a fairly small and discrete outdoor antenna.

An Inverted V or 1/4 wave groundplane would work ok though if you are happy to talk local.

I was thinking of trying an inverted V first as I have one of these in a box somewhere:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/11-MTR-Mono- ... 635-2958-0

I presume an inverted V is just what it sounds like? Mount the centre of the antenna centrally and at the peak of the roof, and each side of the dipole wire down at 90 degrees from each other?

[Buick Mackane]

Basically yes. Very easy to construct as is a dipole, Really the samething in another configuration, Not sure why anybody would want to buy one. You might experience some odd RF / SWR issues having the antenna so close to the radio.

[Mudslinger]

I have an inverted V in the loft and a friend who lives 7 miles away hits me S1 and with noise.

With the 5/8 outside at moderate height (Not really much higher than the roof) I receive him an S7 and perfectly clear.

Loft antennas are poor at best.

Is a stealth outdoor antenna such a wire in a nearby tree not an option?

[Buick Mackane]

Loft aerials aren't as bad as folk make out, Ok it depends on a lot of factors. Materials used in the roof etc etc, I have a homebrew loaded 20m dipole in the loft, And it does ok for what it is

[bigpimp347]

dual Inverted V single feed,
BBTD if needs must.
make a mag loop .
try a moxon in one direction unless you have room to rotate it.

yes the roof will slightly attenuate TX and RX, even more so in the wet and damp,
but many people work the world on loft antennas, it's how you use them that counts.

[The Collector]

You could lie a Sigma IV down in that loft

[NightProwler]

Grow room? You could grow some lovely tomatoes up there.

[Arcton]

Was’nt expecting a loft that big, just measure it and do the maths, work out the bands you’d like to work etc, you could put multiple wires in there switched in the shack

[deadite66]

This is something i tried recently, started with an inverted v in the attic.


got the swr nicely centered in the middle of freeband.

but i hit an unforeseen problem, there is a 4 way tv amplifier in the attic too and even on the lowest power takes out freeview.
so its a RX only antenna now connected to a sdrplay rsp1a.
another thing to keep in mind inverted vee's and horizontal dipoles are horizontally polarized so local contacts using verticals will be hit, i can just about manage hearing people 5 miles away.

so focusing on DX i changed it to a dipole to get it higher up and slightly higher gain. (better take off angle?)


wire length unchanged from the V configuration, not terrible but i wont be TX'ing from it anyway.


image from 15/12/2022, good propagation this week.


js8call and ROS spots from pskreporter, 21/12/2022.