Ham Radio Gutter Antenna

Make sure there is solid electrical continuity between the various sections of your downspout and gutter.

Ham radio gutter antenna.

Stealth gutter antenna for ham radio or shortwave. That article found its way into several ham radio publications and newsletters. Time to attach it to the transmatch and hf rig and fire it up. In fact the downspout has now become my main antenna.

I had great time. Make sure your gutter and downspout are isolated from ground. Gutters if they are made of metal can carry rf and they can do it reasonably well if some things are kept in mind. 500 hz or narrower cw filter really takes away many noises compare to wider setting of ssb voice.

This gutter antenna is connected via an upper roof level downspout where no personal contact is possible. 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. And weaker signal from such set up can be heard better in cw. I did a quick coax run to the outside gutter and grounded the braided side then connected the feedline to an old mfj tuner.

A ham friend of mine recently asked me for the details of how i use my rain gutter and downspout as an antenna. Also less interference is created to neighbour s tv etc from cw than ssb. I was surprised that the gutter tuned up at a. 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.

Most of the original article is still relevant but i have. I originally did a write up on it in 1994. 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. The g5rv is an excellent choice for the 20 meter band.

I have wanted to try this for a while but never got around to it until today. Some words of caution are in order however if you plan to use your rainspout as an antenna. However i recommend cw for such installations.