End Fed Gutter Antenna

Take a brillo pad to the feed point tap.

End fed gutter antenna.

The house is made of brick so the entire system is isolated from ground. 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. Also if you have a non aluminum gutter plastic you can snake wire inside as well and load that.

The automatic antenna coupler is designed for use with end fed unbalanced antennas such as whips and long wires. Over a quarter wavelength for 40 meters and almost a half wave for 30 meters. The point of course is stealth. Including the feed wire into the shack the total length is in the neighborhood of 42 feet.

The links at the end of the article are really good idea joggers. The results have been surprisingly good for shortwave listening using the crane ccradiosw shortwave receiver. An additional advantage is that the antenna can easily be polarized vertically. Rain gutter antenna an end fed multiband antenna larry nelson k5ijb.

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. Put a telescopic mast against a pole hook the antenna to the top and slide it out. You are on air within 5 minutes. Rain gutter which is about 16 feet long across the front of the house.

This automatically tunable antenna coupler is an ideal solution for this type of installation due to the fact that the rain gutter looks like a non resonant end.