Gutter Antenna Counterpoise

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.

Gutter antenna counterpoise.

I went over to see what it was. For good measure i attached counterpoise wires to the ground stud of the transmatch. Counterpoise will improve your receive its the other side of the antenna. If your longwire is close you might want to try the gutter as a counterpoise ground.

Pic courtesy of n6cc website. Unlike gregg s gutter antenna the spout and long horizontal section were made from plastic. Counterpoise will improve your receive its the other side of the antenna. Most of the original article is still relevant but i have.

While i was cleaning up i noticed something sitting on top of the antenna coupler. It was a half eaten slice of pizza. I originally did a write up on it in 1994. Mine was a mfj travel tuner.

Very simple and the system worked for me. That article found its way into several ham radio publications and newsletters. First you have to use a tuner. A ham friend of mine recently asked me for the details of how i use my rain gutter and downspout as an antenna.

I went back up to the roof to work out a more orderly arrangement for the counterpoise. The counterpoise wires are made from garden variety stranded hookup wire cut to a quarter wavelength. One each for 40 30 20 and 15 meters. 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.