Ham Radio Gutter Antenna

I had great time.

Ham radio gutter antenna.

I did a quick coax run to the outside gutter and grounded the braided side then connected the feedline to an old mfj tuner. I have wanted to try this for a while but never got around to it until today. Although varney envisioned his design primarily as a 3 2 wavelength antenna for the 20 meter amateur radio band radio amateurs have used the antenna for multiband use. I was surprised that the gutter tuned up at a.

Gutters if they are made of metal can carry rf and they can do it reasonably well if some things are kept in mind. Most of the original article is still relevant but i have. Also less interference is created to neighbour s tv etc from cw than ssb. However i recommend cw for such installations.

This gutter antenna is connected via an upper roof level downspout where no personal contact is possible. The g5rv is an excellent choice for the 20 meter band. Coincidentally these occurred at the top of the 75 meter band and again in the middle of the 15 meter band. Stealth gutter antenna for ham radio or shortwave.

A ham friend of mine recently asked me for the details of how i use my rain gutter and downspout as an antenna. I originally did a write up on it in 1994. There were a few spots where the rain gutter antenna was under 2 1 swr. That article found its way into several ham radio publications and newsletters.

In fact the downspout has now become my main antenna. And weaker signal from such set up can be heard better in cw. Some words of caution are in order however if you plan to use your rainspout as an antenna. 500 hz or narrower cw filter really takes away many noises compare to wider setting of ssb voice.

Time to attach it to the transmatch and hf rig and fire it up. This all aluminum gutter is fed with coax with an unterminated shield at this end shield connected to radio ground at the other to reduce nearby computer hash from inside the house. I did use rain gutter as antenna and water pipe as ground it worked great from 160 mtr to 10 mtr.