SWL Rain Gutter Antenna

[Jimru]

Hi all,

I am thinking of building (in a manner of speaking) a SWL rain gutter antenna in my new QTH. This would really be for "grins and giggles", but with SWL, the axiom is pretty much "anything goes" when it comes to antennas, it seems to me.

Do any of you here have any experience with such a set-up?

The receiver is an Icom R-75. I do not as of yet have any kind of antenna tuner, although I plan on getting one (mfg and model tbd).

Many thanks!
Jim

 

[SCPD]

A lot of the coatings on gutters can drastically affect receive performance. I haven't been paying attention recently but most of the newer gutters I've seen are some form of polymer or plastic.

Scrape off the paint and get to the bare metal and it'll work. I don't think it'll be very effective with today's RFI soup.

BTW, a tuner is not really necessary unless you plan to play with non-standard antenna designs -- the matching may not really get you much on a receive antenna.

 

[Jimru]

A lot of the coatings on gutters can drastically affect receive performance. I haven't been paying attention recently but most of the newer gutters I've seen are some form of polymer or plastic.

Scrape off the paint and get to the bare metal and it'll work. I don't think it'll be very effective with today's RFI soup.

BTW, a tuner is not really necessary unless you plan to play with non-standard antenna designs -- the matching may not really get you much on a receive antenna.

Thanks. It's definitely metal, it came with the house, which was built in the 1950's and my mom bought the place thirty years ago.

The gutters will be replaced eventually, and I plan on setting up a real wire antenna (TBD), but this should be fun to try, and even compare to whatever I use later.

I will be getting a tuner anyway, for my HF ham rig (FT-450D).