Using Gutters As A Counterpoise

Worked europe easily with no local rfi that i know of hi.

Using gutters as a counterpoise.

The whole length was close to 125 feet in an inverted u shaped. I use my downspout like a random wire antenna using a commercial transmatch. By the way with painted aluminum gutters you can have continuity issues at the junctions which could add to rfi woes if you are running more than qrp. Where would a counterpoise wire tie into my gutter antenna system at the gutter at the pass thru or at the antenna tuner.

The downspout has a vertical run of approximately 16 feet connecting the horizontal rain gutter which is about 16 feet long across the front of the. As for myself i do have a house in a row with a so called stamp garden of 14 by 5 5 mtrs but i am using the other dimension of the garden the unlimmeted height of it hi hi. I might get away with a counterpoise wire running along the perimeter of the house. Built in gutters also called box or hidden gutters are actually a type of rain gutter and can replace the latter especially when the conspicuous appearance of the rain gutter is the main issue.

I ran a open length of coax cable to the aluminum gutter and to a screw at the base no ground was used as this caused noise on the feed line. The concrete foundation comes up about 3ft from the ground before the vinyl siding starts. That s what i m thinking. It cost about 500 to have 40 feet of seamless rain gutter and two 20ft downspouts installed on the east side of my house.

It was really resonant at 20 meters and higher. Grounding the gutter might help safety wise but the downlead to the ground will have inductance and this will keep some level of voltage on the gutter ends anyway. Just a thought and another question. I think that using it as a counterpoise that close to your wire probably won t do anything useful for you.

I made my first european contacts on 15 or 17 meters using the gutter antenna. I found enough money in the budget to by an sg 230 remote tuner which i plan to mount on the garage wall. I need a ground system or counterpoise. Good luck getting an earth ground here in phoenix az.

Counterpoise will improve your receive its the other side of the antenna. A piece of 22 stranded hookup wire runs from the transmatch to the downspout and is attached with a sheet metal screw.