I'm in the process of studying for my ticket but due to a busy schedule it's taking a while. One of the things I've been busy with is buying a house. I got the appraisal back this week and one of the pictures in the attic appears to show some kind of antenna. I haven't been in the attic myself to take a closer look but I was hoping a previous owner was a ham. I'm pretty new to all of this and for all I know its a television antenna. I bought a Baofeng uv-5r to listen to while I study and then put a Yaesu ftm 100dr in my jeep once I decided I was hooked to listening and it wasn't something I was never going to use. I didn't plan on getting into hf for a while but if the antenna is already in place maybe that's all the excuse I need. After this house stuff is finished I should be able to actually sit down and get my studying done. I'm planning on taking the tech and general together. Just listening all the time sucks!

I checked the arrl database for the address and it looks like someone at the house next door is a ham but nothing came back at that house.

Anyone know what I'm looking at here?

Yagi tv antenna

TV antenna.

It would be easy for you to make a 2 Meter ground plane antenna and put it up there. It would greatly increase the range of your handi-talky.

Here's plans for one, and if it would be placed in the attic, you could do away with the PVC parts. http://www.hamuniverse.com/kc0ynr2metergppvc.html

You could also put a dipole or loop antenna up there for HF, although there will probably be noise pickup from appliances and interference to them if you run more than a few Watts of power.

thanks guys

I'll second the 2m ground plane idea. You can make them from just about anything and it will tuck into an attic perfectly. This ugly, burnt thing kicks serious bottom on 2m and 440.