*? ?? RAIN? GUTTER? ANTENNA?? on upper HF bands*
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*I've been experimenting with a variety of HF antennas here at my new QTH at Crosslands Retirement Community in Kennett Square, PA.
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*I have some space limitations, but live on the first floor of a two-story apartment building.*
*Lots of RFI from everywhere inside the building? - S9 on 80m and 40m, less noise on 20 and 10m.
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*I have a? 140 ft end-fed wire with a 49:1 UNUN which tunes up easily on 80/40/20m? and not so well on 17m/15m/10m.*
*This end-fed is horizontal, low to the ground (winds among trees) and is good for high-angle NVIS radiation on 80/40m.*
*I use it on the PA NBEMS net (3583 kHz) and on the Mid-Atlantic NBEMS net (7068 kHz)
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*I'd like to get up something with a _low-angle_ signal for DX on? 20/17/10m bands. *
*But can I keep any HF antenna "hidden"?*
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*What I am now trying is the aluminum _rain gutter_? for our building, vertical for about 20 ft, makes a right angle turn and runs horizontally for about 20 ft.*
*The coax attaches at the base of the gutter, near ground, to a 9:1 UNUN with a sheet metal screw into the gutter for a decent electrical connection.
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*So overall, about 40 ft of thick (painted) aluminum gutter radiating element - in the shape of an inverted? L and? not resonant on any ham band.*
*Lowest SWR around? 16 MHz.? It looks like it might work out on the 30m band as well (10.1 MHz).
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*I have a Palomar Engineering? (500W rating) 9:1? UNUN on? 50 ft RG8X? coax into the shack (closet).*
*I have one counterpoise wire about 20 ft long attached to the UNUN?? ground terminal.*
*Then a good manual tuner in the shack to an HF rig for very low SWR on any band.
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*Here is what I see on my Nano VNA from 10 - 30 MHz: ? not bad SWR? (under 2.5:1) ? in the shack on 20/17/15/10 meters.*
*I'll give it a try over the next few weeks and see if the local noise is more/less on these bands, compared to my 140 ft end-fed.*
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*I'm often running QRP on these bands, CW and digi modes only.
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*de k3eui? barry*
Barry K3EUI
