I settled for one of MFJ's apartment dweller's antennas, since they had a 30-day money back guarantee.    I tried the antenna diligently for thirty days, but I could not work anybody! It was like I was trying to operate a mobile from inside a steel cage.  Next I tried an "invisible" antenna outside. I called my supplier of sorts W4WZU, and he had 177 feet of enameled wire from a TV yoke.     I poked the wire through the screen on one of my windows. I did not realize at the time that a grounded metal strip ran down the side of the building at my window. That meant my antenna was effectively laying on the ground vertically! That didn't work. I had a very feeble signal.

      I thought about moving to the apartment next door where there wasn't a metal strip, but that would have entailed the expense of packing and unpacking again, and the results may have been less than expected. I finally prevailed on the Pastor, building manager and the maintenance man to tie my wire off on the far side of the church next door. It only took about 110 feet of wire, so I removed the excess 60 feet or so, but it worked! I was in business.

    Things went along great for about a week, and I was radioing up a storm, but one morning my SWR was jumping all over the place. When I looked out my window my wire was slapping up against the metal strip again, apparently broken at the attachment to the church. Upon talking to the building manager, he assured me that he would have it re-attached.

    I called my friend W4WZU again, and he gave me 120 feet of 18 gauge copper clad wire that was used on aircraft in World War II. I shoved it out the window, but the darn stuff wanted to remain curled like it was on the spool!      The building manager kept saying that he would have my  antenna fixed, but nothing happened. We had a 4th of July party on the roof of the building.  One of the other tenants complained to the building manager about the wire swinging by her window.  The  manager referred her to me, and I told her that he was supposed to fix it. I asked him at church the next Sunday if there were any Biblical references about promises.  He said there were at least a hundred,  mostly in the Psalms.  If he knew I was pulling his chain; he didn't let on.

    One day I saw a rope hanging by my window so I went up on the roof to see what was happening: I found the maintenance man fishing over the side of the building with a hook. 1 asked him if he was catching any fish, but he said "no.," that he was trying to hook the wire on the side of the building. I told him that I thought he was supposed  to tie it off on the far end of the church; but he didn't say anything,  I just kept on fishing for a while longer, then gave up and quit.  I went to the bank and when I returned,  I found a three inch  rip in the screen screen, the wire tangled outside my window and my radio pulled over to the end of the desk! I called the building manager for the next 3 days, but: he didn't return my calls.  I saw him at church the next Sunday and asked him if he
knew of any Biblical references about returning phone calls. He said he didn't know of any. I posed the same question to the Fellowship Net on the 146.700 repeater that Sunday, and somebody came up with Matthew 22-14: "Many are called but few are chosen." I mentioned that passage to the building manager the next time I saw him, but I got no response.

    After talking with the maintenance man once again about his helping me put the wire back up in the air, I decided to call some of my HAM friends to see if they could help. Vernon N4UL suggested that. I contact Allan AC4HI who is a Major. in the Louisville Fire Department. He was most helpful and came right down. It so happened that the chief maintenance man was gone, and the building manager would not let anyone out on the roof of the chuich without an insurance certificate. Allan asked if he would object to a ladder-truck, and he said he had no objection. Allan told me that he would see about bringing over the truck when he next reported for his duty shift on Wednesday.

    On Saturday I contacted Major Allan Davis AC4HI and he said he would be right down. I was unsuccessful reaching the building manager, but the chief maintenance man gave the operation his blessings.  The truck arrived and the Fire Department folks went to work. Allan said that while he was talking with the maintenance man, a little old lady had asked, "This isn't going to affect my TV, is it?" He assured her that it would not.  The 18 gauge wire was a basket case. It developed that the glass insulator wasp what broke. I bought some pvc coated stealth antenna wire and called on AC4HI again. The new antenna will only load on the CW bunt? so here I am. Since I have had so much trouble getting RF out of this cage I'm living in, I often wonder how it could get back in. I guess RF is funny stuff.

I would like to thank everybody who helped me get back on the HF bands on my 81 st birthday. What a grand birthday present!

73 de Boyd "Tom" Sigler, AE4LV

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 Boyd at His Station.

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