Stealth Antennas in Amateur Radio

Stealth Antennas in Amateur Radio

In the olden days when TV antennas on the rooftop was a sign of prestige and a necessity for most homes, nobody would have bothered about stealth antennas in amateur radio. Now with cable TV and OTT content taking the priority, it is hard to find any antenna on roof tops. There could be some small dish antennas of direct to home satellite networks providing television coverage. Moreover urban homes could be crowded with hardly any space for a good antenna. When I started as a radio amateur in late 1980s at my parents’ home, I could easily host 40 m and 80 m horizontal dipoles. I could even have hosted a 160 m dipole if I was aware of it at that time and had a radio capable of working on 160 m. Now, though I do not have an HF setup at present, it will be hard to host even a 20 m dipole at my city home with hardly any space around. Things are worse in more developed metros across the globe. More over there are severe restrictions for antennas which affect the beauty of the homes, in several regions.

There comes the role of stealth antennas which are camouflaged to avoid detection and being unsightly. Stealth antennas are often compromise antennas as you cannot expect the same performance from them like a multi-element beam antenna hosted on a tall tower with a rotator. So there is no question of being a ‘big gun’ who can work the rarest DX easily and win contest after contest. In my current field of interest, ‘big gun’ would also mean one with a huge antenna array which can work Moonbounce or Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) contacts with ease. Still, stealth antenna is an option for those who may have to become ‘paper hams’ otherwise!

Similar considerations of not disturbing neighbours would have led to the popularity of digital weak signal modes in amateur radio like FT8 and FT4. You do not have to yell at the top of your voice disturbing the sleep of those at home and outside while chasing DX or working contests at night. Moreover, these weak signal modes will go well along with the poor signals of stealth antennas as well. This could also be the reason for the popularity of portable operations in many regions when there is no chance of an antenna at home. Some wealthy ones even buy out large areas in far away regions without restrictions, to setup great antennas and radios to be operated remotely as well.

There are several ways of making your antennas not so visible. One is to use thin wire and run it along a fence, up a tree or on the edge of the roof making it inconspicuous. Some try to disguise it like decoration lights or flag poles. There are many who place their antennas in the attic. That is where the small magnetic loop antennas are popular. In case of VHF and UHF antennas, you could place them in a wooden attic without much problem to access local repeaters. But presence of metallic structures would create problem in antennas placed in the attic.

Rain gutter is another spot for a stealth antenna. You may relegate antennas to the backyard where it may be less visible. Most of the stealth antennas are some form of non-resonant antennas like random wire antenna or long wire antenna and needs a good antenna tuner. Having a remote antenna tuner at the location of the antenna gives best results though it will be costlier and technically challenging like the need for Bias-Tee for power supply or another line along with the coaxial cable. Coaxial cable will have to be a low loss variety and hence more expensive, in compromise antennas, to improve performance. Slinky Dipole Antenna can also be used in the loft as it covers less horizontal space for a given wavelength.