End Fed Gutter Antenna

The results have been surprisingly good for shortwave listening using the crane ccradiosw shortwave receiver.

End fed gutter antenna.

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. Also if you have a non aluminum gutter plastic you can snake wire inside as well and load that. It can be configured to be used with dipoles and inverted vees as well. 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.

The automatic antenna coupler is designed for use with end fed unbalanced antennas such as whips and long wires. Take a brillo pad to the feed point tap. Including the feed wire into the shack the total length is in the neighborhood of 42 feet. Rain gutter which is about 16 feet long across the front of the house.

The house is made of brick so the entire system is isolated from ground. The links at the end of the article are really good idea joggers. An advantage of end fed antennas is of course the simplicity especially for fieldwork this is a huge advantage. Next run our jumper wire from the top of the alpha match and clip it onto your gutter make sure the jumper wire is not laying on or touching the ground.

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. An additional advantage is that the antenna can easily be polarized vertically. Over a quarter wavelength for 40 meters and almost a half wave for 30 meters. You are on air within 5 minutes.

Put a telescopic mast against a pole hook the antenna to the top and slide it out.