Gutter Antenna Counterpoise

That article found its way into several ham radio publications and newsletters.

Gutter antenna counterpoise.

Counterpoise will improve your receive its the other side of the antenna. The counterpoise wires are made from garden variety stranded hookup wire cut to a quarter wavelength. 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. Mine was a mfj travel tuner. I went over to see what it was. First you have to use a tuner.

I originally did a write up on it in 1994. A ham friend of mine recently asked me for the details of how i use my rain gutter and downspout as an antenna. Apparently a bird had scavenged it from someone s trash and had put it up on the antenna coupler for safe. Very simple and the system worked for me.

For good measure i attached counterpoise wires to the ground stud of the transmatch. Pic courtesy of n6cc website. I went back up to the roof to work out a more orderly arrangement for the counterpoise. This all aluminum gutter is fed with coax with an unterminated shield at this end shield connected to radio ground at the other to reduce nearby computer hash from inside the house.

Counterpoise will improve your receive its the other side of the antenna. 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. If your longwire is close you might want to try the gutter as a counterpoise ground. Unlike gregg s gutter antenna the spout and long horizontal section were made from plastic.