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Originally Posted by goraman
KC6UJS but not active for 5 years since I got a condo.
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There is still a way you can get on the air, even from a condominium. Barker and Williamson markets an "apartment portable" antenna, model AP-10A, which can be clamped onto a desk, table, even a wooden window sill. This antenna covers 40-10 meters and will handle up to 200 watts. I live in an apartment building and use an AP-10A with my Icom IC-725 100-watt nine-band rig; it works well enough for local contacts (the radio club of which I am a member has a weekly SSB net on 28.450 MHz; I've checked into the net using this antenna, with good results). I still have to find out what this antenna is made of as far as DX is concerned, but cannot use the radio on CW as the 100-watt signal trips the GFCI (ground-fault circuit interrupter) in my kitchen when I key the rig. The irony is that I can use the transceiver on SSB without tripping the GFCI; I'm still trying to figure that one out.
I also operate on 144 MHz (2 meters), almost exclusively on the local repeater (N8BC, 147.81-21). I have an Icom IC-T22A handheld for this band; I often check into my radio club's 2-meter net on the repeater I just mentioned. I also have an old (1978) Midland 13-500 FM mobile rig that I used extensively at my previous residence, on packet radio as well as standard 2-meter FM. I was also very active in traffic nets, mostly CW and FM, from my previous location, but since moving to where I live now, and since my antenna won't tune to 80 meters (the radiating element is too short), I've had to give up that aspect of ham radio, at least for now. Was also a member of ARRL until the dues got too high. I am currently a member, however, of the Lake County (Ohio) Amateur Radio Association (LCARA) and have been since 1987.
73,