Gutter Antenna Counterpoise

Unlike gregg s gutter antenna the spout and long horizontal section were made from plastic.

Gutter antenna counterpoise.

Apparently a bird had scavenged it from someone s trash and had put it up on the antenna coupler for safe. I originally did a write up on it in 1994. That article found its way into several ham radio publications and newsletters. This gutter antenna is connected via an upper roof level downspout where no personal contact is possible.

Most of the original article is still relevant but i have. 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. First you have to use a tuner. 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.

Very simple and the system worked for me. While i was cleaning up i noticed something sitting on top of the antenna coupler. 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. A ham friend of mine recently asked me for the details of how i use my rain gutter and downspout as an antenna.

Counterpoise will improve your receive its the other side of the antenna. The counterpoise wires are made from garden variety stranded hookup wire cut to a quarter wavelength. Pic courtesy of n6cc website. It was a half eaten slice of pizza.

I went back up to the roof to work out a more orderly arrangement for the counterpoise. One each for 40 30 20 and 15 meters. If your longwire is close you might want to try the gutter as a counterpoise ground. I went over to see what it was.