HELP NEEDED ABOUT ANTENNAS ???

[WARLOCK]

I live in a ground floor flat with no garden what so ever and very tall buildings all around me , what i would like is some sort of antenna i could use for the ham bands at the moment i have managed to put a imax 2000 cb antenna up even with a tunner this is not very good ,any thoughts please .
from warlock---26TM 134---Mr George from wisbech cambs

[ChipButty]

Magnetic loop? http://www.g4tph.com/

Compact Loop ? http://www.wonder-wand.co.uk/WonderWand/WW_Photos.html

[Diesel man]

Hustler antenna 80-10m vertical.

[rogerbeep]

For transmitting with an CB antenna, consider bypassing or removing the coil part, if equipped, as it gives no benefits for any band maybe beside 10m. The coil complicates the "electrical picture" and gives additional loss outside the designed frequency range.

Do you have a prefered band where you transmit most of the time? If so length adjustment may give some benefits, as you should avoid any antenna length that is a multiple of half a (electrical) wavelength for the chosen frequency.
A short random antenna less than a fraction of a wave length will not be most efficient. However it will receive.
That is the reason for many to build a full size loop for the lowest operation freqency as this can be tuned for all/most higher HF frequencies. But this is out of the question for those of us who are not blessed with large fields (or woods) around our home.

The CB antenna (without the coil) and a good tuner* in combination with GOOD earth connection should give acceptable results on many bands.
* NOT the typical small modern autotuner made for dipoles and "balanced" antennas, but a tuner built for random/longwire antennas.
Such tuners often have manually operated (L, C and Z) knobs and wheels, with a set of connection terminals in addition to the typical SO-239 at the backside. Here you can choose to include baluns/ununs or do direct connection.
Such tuners was common before, but today they are overlooked by the new generation of radio amateurs, so you can get those relativey cheap at swap meets or maybe in advertisements.

The main problem for many of us is all the noise generated in dense built areas.
There are no inventions that can split the unwanted noise completely from the wanted signal. Your inbuild filter function called brain/ear will process some of it. Ok, most modern radios has DSP which can suppress even more, but not all.

Surprisingly for many people we are generating a lot ourselves in our home. Computer screens, switch mode (i.e. small) power supplies, LED lights, fridge compressors, all kind of wireless stuff and so on are "transmitters" that should be suppressed (or switched off).
If you have neighbours along the feed line, you must add their noise contribution too.
If/when the area has a power outage you should run the radio with a battery and "enjoy the silence".

You are most probably running a coaxial cable up to the antenna - if so it can be beneficial to clip on 10-15 ferrite cores at the top end just before the antenna. This will make a current trap/choke and will prevent the coax shield becoming a part of the antenna, helping you both at TX and RX.
20 clip on ferrites in suitable sized diameter can be bougth at ebay for about a fiver including S&H.
Consider the same at radio end to avoid some of the in-house noise.