End Fed Gutter Antenna

The house is made of brick so the entire system is isolated from ground.

End fed gutter antenna.

The links at the end of the article are really good idea joggers. Take a brillo pad to the feed point tap. Next run our jumper wire from the top of the alpha match and clip it onto your gutter make sure the jumper wire is not laying on or touching the ground. Of all the things in this hobby antenna design and use is the most fun for me.

In hopes of finding a low profile antenna for shortwave listening the rain gutter and downspout on the back porch were tried as a random length antenna. It can be configured to be used with dipoles and inverted vees as well. The point of course is stealth. Including the feed wire into the shack the total length is in the neighborhood of 42 feet.

You are on air within 5 minutes. Put a telescopic mast against a pole hook the antenna to the top and slide it out. Also if you have a non aluminum gutter plastic you can snake wire inside as well and load that. The results have been surprisingly good for shortwave listening using the crane ccradiosw shortwave receiver.

Place any metal rod that is between 3 8 to 1 inch in diameter into the ground then slip our top of mast mount over it. An additional advantage is that the antenna can easily be polarized vertically. The automatic antenna coupler is designed for use with end fed unbalanced antennas such as whips and long wires. Rain gutter which is about 16 feet long across the front of the house.

Over a quarter wavelength for 40 meters and almost a half wave for 30 meters.