Rain Gutter Antenna--Insulated Wire Inside

[N3WAK]

Has anybody actually tried this?  I'm not talking about loading up your gutters.  I have a one story house.  I'm not even sure of the perimeter dimensions, but I've been thinking of making a loop of insulated hookup wire inside my gutter--running it all around my house, just laying in the aluminum gutter, and feeding it with ladder line and a tuner.  A low, horizontal loop of uncertain dimensions.  I'm concerned about shielding by the aluminum gutter and overall effectiveness.  I know that I'll be trying it soon, just to see if "it works," but has anybody else tried this already?  Decent results, or not really?  I have several antennas already, but have been itching to try this one for a couple of years.  However, I'm waiting for a really cold, really windy, and really miserable day to do my antenna work this fall. 

Thanks!  73, Tony

[ONAIR]

Has anybody actually tried this?  I'm not talking about loading up your gutters.  I have a one story house.  I'm not even sure of the perimeter dimensions, but I've been thinking of making a loop of insulated hookup wire inside my gutter--running it all around my house, just laying in the aluminum gutter, and feeding it with ladder line and a tuner.  A low, horizontal loop of uncertain dimensions.  I'm concerned about shielding by the aluminum gutter and overall effectiveness.  I know that I'll be trying it soon, just to see if "it works," but has anybody else tried this already?  Decent results, or not really?  I have several antennas already, but have been itching to try this one for a couple of years.  However, I'm waiting for a really cold, really windy, and really miserable day to do my antenna work this fall. 

Thanks!  73, Tony

  Why don't you drape a wire around the house first and see how it works, then drop it into the gutter and check out the difference?

[WB6BYU]

I've had reasonably good luck with loops run around the house, but putting it inside
an aluminum rain gutter probably isn't a good idea.  Vinyl gutters would be a better
choice in that case, but you probably aren't going to replace your gutters just to
try it out.

[KH6AQ]

The RF current in the wire will induce RF cuurent in the rain gutter. It will radiate.

[KD5FX]

I used a SG3000 remote tuner (just like the MFJ 927 model) to tune up the rain gutter on my house. It is aluminum seamless type gutter and is over 200 ft long as it loops around 3/4 of the house. It is also NOT grounded, there are plastic irrigation pipes at the end of each down spout going into the ground. Plus the gutter is screwed not to wood but a concrete based product used to trim the house. The tuner was mounted just under the eve of the house and a ground rod and wire installed too.
It would tune up on 80 thru 10 meters OK and I could make some contacts. It was not a great antenna, several dB down from a normal dipole at the same height but better than nothing. Later I tried a random length wire (108 ft) connected to the tuner which runs up the TV antenna pole about 20 ft and then across the roof to the far side of the house where I support it off some black painted PVC pipe about 18 inch long mounted to the rain gutter. The wire is black and the roofing is black so you can't see it from a distance. My XYL didn't even notice it for 3 months until one day I had to make an adjustment and she was out in the back yard. Still using the wire for now, works better than the gutter. Also using a small vertical dipole for 20 to 10 called the Bravo 5 from N6BT (www.n6bt.com) it works VERY well! I use the wire for 80 & 40 now.
73, Dave

[KA0P]

I have used  fed rain gutter many different times. Current use  for the past 2 years is fed with an MFJ927 auto tuner.  I have no trouble with 160-10 meter coverage.  I also keep power low 25-50 watts to avoid rfi. Dont expect  to be king of the band, but I do make contacts, and even dx on 20-10 meters. also use for CAP and USAF  MARS HF SSB.  I was just using it in both the cw and fone sweepstakes this month.

73   Dave