I did this back in 1981 when i lived in texas.
Rain gutter loop antenna.
A couple of years ago i had written an article on the use of my rain gutter on my home as my hf antenna.
Unlike gregg s gutter antenna the spout and long horizontal section were made from plastic.
I didn t use the ground.
This is the antenna i have been relegated to use for my hf operating.
The best smartuners to use for a rain gutter antenna are the sg 230 sg 231 or the sg 237.
The smartuner should be mounted as close to the feed point of the rain gutter antenna as possible.
The complex went cable and i fed a length of coax through the old antenna hole in my bedroom to the rain gutter outside.
And weaker signal from such set up can be heard better in cw.
Classic rain gutter height loop elevated on standoffs stylized for emphasis to find out i challenged the rain gutter loop with eznec antenna modeling software.
Over a quarter wavelength for 40 meters and almost a half wave for 30 meters.
Running two wires at each end of the house can turn this into a horizontal loop.
This required best case and worst caswe models to encompass most house variables.
I built variations of this antenna when i lived in several rental homes on hawaii island shortly after getting my novice class amateur radio license back in 1977.
Gutter hangers and gutter brackets allow gutters to attach to a house s eaves offering support and strength to the front edge.
500 hz or narrower cw filter really takes away many noises compare to wider setting of ssb voice.
Maybe 8 feet of coax to my swan.
Below is a photo of a simple effective and entirely covert hf antenna.
I did use rain gutter as antenna and water pipe as ground it worked great from 160 mtr to 10 mtr.
1 two loop heights 2 two house types and 3 several bands.
Other pieces include elbows gutter extensions and gutter flashing.
Second article on the rain gutter antenna.
It is the rain gutter along the front of a house.
All are waterproofed and have the tuning range to match most rain gutters.
I had great time.
Including the feed wire into the shack the total length is in the neighborhood of 42 feet.
The rain gutter antenna has a vertical component approximately 25 high and extends horizontally across the roof line for 35.
Gutter end caps close off the ends of gutters keeping debris and water from flowing out at this point.
Also less interference is created to neighbour s tv etc from cw than ssb.
