Ultimately, though, I had decided on using a different approach. There was no doubt in my mind that his design would work. In a few days, he gave me a coil design that could be added to the feed point of the rain gutter in order for it to load on 160 meters. Yardley Beers, WØJF (now SK) who volunteered to do all the complex mathematical calculations on my rain gutter antenna system. I looked at several possible solutions including one developed by my good ham friend, stealth antenna compatriot, DX’er, celebrated author, and renowned Physicist – Dr. Tuning on 10 meters was a bit tricky as well as finding any sort of decent match on 12 meters and 17 meters. Although, loading on the 80, 40, 30, 20, and 15 meters bands did not present as much of a problem and I could get an SWR match under 3:1 in a few small portions of those bands. It was impossible to find a decent matching combination on 160 meters at all. You might consider connecting to your radial system any nearby chain link fencing, metal lawn sprinkler piping, buried metal screening, water standpipes, underground water storage tanks, metal drainage culverts, railroad tracks, etc.Īfter the installation and in the initial trials, one of the drawbacks I noticed on the rain gutter antenna was that it was somewhat tricky to load on some of the bands using a conventional antenna trans-match. According to the accepted theory, the more metal and wire you use in your radial system, the better. Additionally, I bolted together all of the aluminum lawn edging around my lawn and added a wire from that into the other counterpoise elements. I then wired together the three aluminum window wells that were on that side of the house and added them to the planted radial wires. That antenna needs a decent counterpoise to work correctly so I planted fifteen random length radials under the lawn. The gutter measured 25 feet vertically and then ran 35 feet horizontally for a total of 60 feet in overall length and resembled a ready-made inverted “L” or what is also known as a Marconi antenna configuration. One day I was looking around to see what I could use to support a wire on the roof and got an idea to try to use the aluminum rain gutter on the east side of my house as my HF antenna instead. I’ll not complain, as I knew what the HOA rules were when I got this house and accepted them as a challenge to my ingenuity. Although I did remind them at the time that it was illegal to ban small outdoor satellite dishes and Yagi’s for TV reception per the FCC, so they amended that clause in the HOA covenants, but still continued their ban on any outside ham antennas. This was the antenna I was relegated to use for my HF operating due to the oppressive rules of the local Home Owners Association regarding external antennas. Several years ago, I wrote an article on the use of the rain gutter on my Colorado home as my HF antenna.
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