Fence Antenna Ideas
antennas@qth.net list, Jan. 1999
John Matz: This reminds me of my yard about ten years ago. You have a wooden fence
. Good.
One suggestion:
Get a good antenna tuner
(if you don’t have one) and learn how to use it.
2. Get some insulated wire (house wire will work) and an eight-foot ground rod.
3. Put the ground rod in near the fence. That’s your coax ground.
4. Put a number of 1/4 wave radiators (234/f in feet), separated, up on the fence … like 8′ for 10m, 16′ for 20m, etc., all in parallel to the coax
center conductor. They don’t have to be straight … just 6 feet up, and then over horizontally … or slanted at a 45 or so, and then bent over. Keep as much of the wire as high as possible.
If they can be placed far from the house, then you can put up at least three radiators for three bands easily.
Use the tuner inside the shack.
I’ve used this method on 75m too. It’s not as efficient as some antenna systems, but it is cheap.
You can use wire sizes such as 14 gauge wire for your fence antenna and no one will be the wiser when it comes to detecting your antenna.
These types of stealth antennas are great for the survivalist needs in radio communications because they are small, lightweight and portable. Multiple bands of these stealth antennas can be wound up on a spool and thrown into your bugout bag or your go box.
A survivalist new to radio communications may come into contact with certain radio and antenna “experts” who will say these fence antennas (or any stealth antenna) are “marginal”. The design of stealth antennas
is that they are difficult, or even impossible, to detect. Its a given that they may not perform as well as a commercial antenna mounted high up on a tower or pole. But try to imagine dragging these aluminum antennas around with you as you try to set up a survivalist camp. You’d likely abandon the thing after you put it up the first time.
But stealth antennas such as this fence antenna can be placed against a fence or any other small structure in the yard of your home.
