This is the antenna i have been relegated to use for my hf operating.
Gutter loop antenna.
500 hz or narrower cw filter really takes away many noises compare to wider setting of ssb voice.
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.
Second article on the rain gutter antenna.
Mine was a mfj travel tuner.
Also less interference is created to neighbour s tv etc from cw than ssb.
Running two wires at each end of the house can turn this into a horizontal loop.
This hoa buster antenna defeats the rules imposed upon amateur ham radio operators by using existing metal gutters as an antenna and enables external tuners to achieve a near perfect match from 10 80 meters.
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.
Signal reports on 30 and 40 meters my primary bands have been consistently good.
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.
It is 80 feet long and off center fed as a windom with a single wire lead in to a tuner.
The smartuner should be mounted as close to the feed point of the rain gutter antenna as possible.
1 two loop heights 2 two house types and 3 several bands.
In fact the downspout has now become my main antenna.
The rain gutter antenna has a vertical component approximately 25 high and extends horizontally across the roof line for 35.
This required best case and worst caswe models to encompass most house variables.
It is the rain gutter along the front of a house.
Pic courtesy of n6cc website.
Below is a photo of a simple effective and entirely covert hf antenna.
However i recommend cw for such installations.
A couple of years ago i had written an article on the use of my rain gutter on my home as my hf antenna.
I had great time.
The length of the antenna is somewhat short for 80 meters but performance on that band has been a big surprise.
Very simple and the system worked for me.
The best smartuners to use for a rain gutter antenna are the sg 230 sg 231 or the sg 237.
And weaker signal from such set up can be heard better in cw.
All are waterproofed and have the tuning range to match most rain gutters.
Unlike gregg s gutter antenna the spout and long horizontal section were made from plastic.
