Concerns about interference

I live in a block of flats, second floor, and I believe the TV equipment is located in my section of loft. Have bought a CRT 6900n and a Thunderpole 1/2 wave Hi Gain. I am not allowed to have an external antenna, so to start will be poking the Thunderpole through my loft hatch, it will probably have to go in at a slight angle. Am I asking for trouble with interference, or is a case of just going with it and seeing what happens?

Hi Mark,

Always a pain when trying to run a decent antenna setup within apartment/flat dwellings.

Nowadays with many running internet streaming television services the chances of affecting anyone are greatly diminished than ever before. However I do know that there are many stalwarts insisting on picking up terrestrial services (local news is one of many reasons) but with digital broadcasting your chances of causing interference are diminished too. 

With such a close proximity to other devices through you do stand much more chance of causing interference but the bain of it all will be interference caused to you.

With an end-fed antenna such as the setup you mention you will likely pick up the buzz, squeal and hash of just about every electronic device around you and in an apartment environment every neighbours devices too!

If you land up with anything less than S9 of noise you'll be lucky.

Running a 17 foot long antenna leant over to accommodate the limited space may very well cause you some issues too.

But then again, never say never and try everything at your disposal or ingenuity to get on air. Some manage well with bits of wire strung around, magnetic loops and the like, (myself very much included), yet still manage sufficient or good radio conditions to allow many contacts to be made. (My bit of 'lawnmower lead' in my loft has bagged me worldwide contacts!)


I wish you all the best in your endeavours, have fun and if something doesn't work first time don't be despondent but instead try something else.

All the best,
Victor

Had the antenna arrive today, I had more roof clearance than I first thought, it is now poked up straight through the loft hatch. It really is an inelegant solution, but is the best I can manage for now.

Hopefully the 6900N. PSU and coax will arrive over the next couple of days, then will see where I am and if anyone is around my neck of the woods. Had a look at the directory for Dorset and there seem to be quite a few people registered, some are over a big hill and most about 20-25 miles away.

I was trying to remember where I'd seen someone put an antenna up inside their house and sure enough it was our old 'Fred In The Shed' :-

https://youtu.be/Z8vehgbxCcc

Seemed to work although with the warnings about RF burns etc.

You can but 'suck-it-and-see' and proceed on from there.

Mt first was the DV-27 on a biscuit tin at the top of the stairs.
24 or 23?? channel AM radio connected to a car battery and it worked.

Well, the planets aligned today and pretty much everything arrived 6900N, coax and PSU, there was a bonus with the 6900N which was the Foundation Licence Now book. The transceiver all seems to be working OK and my SWR seems to be fine with no adjustment. Noise levels are quite high at S7 but that is to be expected, did hear someone earlier on FM channel 19, it was too faint to hear properly. Am hoping things clear up a little tonight and am ready for action.

Turn down that RF gain a bit or wait until nightfall and that noise level should drop.

Have fun!

I sat here all day yesterday and not a sausage, s7 of interference all day and all night, I have come to the conclusion that my roof tiles and bricks must be radioactive kryptonite. My only other solution will be dangling a Thunderbolt SSD12+ out of my living room window. That faces South and has far fewer buildings than the rear of my flat.

I have guesstimated that I will have about 10ft of antenna hanging down the front of the building in the hope of clearing some noise. There is little else I can try, as I can't fix the antenna or drill holes for fixing the coax in place, so will be using a lead weight wrapped in insulation tape as an anchor so if it does blow round people won't hear it banging around.

Don't give up too early Mark.

I know that when I first came back to CB a few years ago I sat for days (and weeks) not hearing a damn thing. When I did hear my first contact and tried to QSK I was told in less than polite terms to sling me hook!

However come that first summer on air I got to enjoy some good skip action into Europe and all my doubts about my setup faded away.

Wasn't long before I decided to take my ticket and since being a Ham with all those frequencies at my disposal there hasn't been a quiet day since. Loving every minute!
(Shamefully I haven't done much in the way of CB since.)

Give it some time and your patience will be rewarded.

(Still looking forward to congratulating you when you complete your Foundation course and exam!)

Echo Victor's "don't give up". I played around lots until my noise came down. I am not in the same situation as you Mark, but having permanent large antennas outside at my QTH just can't happen. Even if you eventually get to a point where your noise is lower but still higher than you want, when you pass your ticket there will be other bands available to you and the noise will surely be lower on at least some of them, plus you can then play with digital modes which appear to cut through the noise better.

Don't know if you've got a balcony? If not you might be able to utilize a window and fix something like the below vid on it. Not really a permanent solution, but can be set up quickly, and being outside it may pick up less noise. I set up something similar in my garden on Saturday mornings last year albeit in a different configuration, and it worked well being fed near the ground. So I am sure you'd get contacts feeding it higher up at your level.



Half way through you'll see he makes a few 10m and 12m contacts so it would work on 11m. You'd just might need to play with the wire length a bit get the SWR reading ok 11m as the 6900 doesn't have a tuner.

a nice wire dipole over your balcony will work well

stephen Gunrunner wrote:

a nice wire dipole over your balcony will work well

No balcony here sadly, just modern vertically sliding windows. I can probably get about a 10ft drop down the front of the building with a Thunderbolt SSD12+ before I get the antenna over my downstairs neighbour's window, probably not the best solution, but best I can try for now.

Hi  
I was going to suggest you throw a Hawkins wire antenna out the window 🪟 
It worked for me on the Pmr band. 
Remember to plug it in or hold the end though or you’ll have to run down and get it back!‍�