Ham Radio Gutter Antenna

I did use rain gutter as antenna and water pipe as ground it worked great from 160 mtr to 10 mtr.

Ham radio gutter antenna. I have wanted to try this for a while but never got around to it until today. The g5rv is an excellent choice for the 20 meter band. And weaker signal from such set up can be heard better in cw. They basically function as a random length wire antenna although if you have the space for it and do a little planning and experimentation you could possibly create a system resonant on a particular frequency.

500 hz or narrower cw filter really takes away many noises compare to wider setting of ssb voice. There were a few spots where the rain gutter antenna was under 2 1 swr. I had great time. Stealth gutter antenna for ham radio or shortwave.

Make sure your gutter and downspout are isolated from ground. Time to attach it to the transmatch and hf rig and fire it up. Gutters if they are made of metal can carry rf and they can do it reasonably well if some things are kept in mind. I was surprised that the gutter tuned up at a.

I originally did a write up on it in 1994. 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. However i recommend cw for such installations. Coincidentally these occurred at the top of the 75 meter band and again in the middle of the 15 meter band.

A ham friend of mine recently asked me for the details of how i use my rain gutter and downspout as an 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. In fact the downspout has now become my main antenna. That article found its way into several ham radio publications and newsletters.

Most of the original article is still relevant but i have. Some words of caution are in order however if you plan to use your rainspout as an antenna. Also less interference is created to neighbour s tv etc from cw than ssb.