Counterpoise will improve your receive its the other side of the antenna.
Gutter antenna counterpoise.
Counterpoise will improve your receive its the other side of the antenna.
Pic courtesy of n6cc website.
Mine was a mfj travel tuner.
Most of the original article is still relevant but i have.
I went back up to the roof to work out a more orderly arrangement for the counterpoise.
So i just ran an appropriate length of 18 awg speaker wire inside the plastic downspout and horizontal section sealing the ends with waterproof silicone caulk and attached the antenna segment to the main wire of some rg 8 coax while i connected the.
The counterpoise wires are made from garden variety stranded hookup wire cut to a quarter wavelength.
A ham friend of mine recently asked me for the details of how i use my rain gutter and downspout as an antenna.
While i was cleaning up i noticed something sitting on top of the antenna coupler.
That article found its way into several ham radio publications and newsletters.
It was a half eaten slice of pizza.
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 got this idea about writing about my antenna because i had one once in the condo that worked very well down to about 40 meters.
Very simple and the system worked for me.
This gutter antenna is connected via an upper roof level downspout where no personal contact is possible.
I originally did a write up on it in 1994.
I went over to see what it was.
Apparently a bird had scavenged it from someone s trash and had put it up on the antenna coupler for safe.
For good measure i attached counterpoise wires to the ground stud of the transmatch.
Unlike gregg s gutter antenna the spout and long horizontal section were made from plastic.
