If you like aggravation and disappointment, go for it. What this video doesn't explain is that any rain gutter I've seen is a poor conductor, and is particularly unsuitable for HF signals. Since a gutter contains water, dirt, and rotting organic matter, it will become unstable in time; perhaps only a few days, but almost certainly months. A nice dip on an analyzer doesn't say an antenna is efficient. I once built a tuning reference for an antenna production line. The reference was a 51-Ohm resistor in series with a mica capacitor and an inductor. It was tweaked to dip at the center of a ham band, and it was enclosed in a solid brass box with soldered seams. Its dip was sweet, but guess how well it radiated. Gutter efficiency? Not.
Far better to use the gutter as a bed in which to lay an insulated wire with the wire being used as an antenna. Ask me how I know
I once did a whole house inspection for a friend that was buying a house from a old ham friend. When we got to the attic, the rafters were scorched / charred, burned from the Slinky Antenna - still hanging from the nail placed in the rafters. I bet he thought that 100 watts was not enough to burn down the house either. At least he could have used porcelain insulators, lord knows there was plenty of old knob and tube in that house.
Rain gutter antenna is obviously very far from perfect, and I don’t have one so I have no first-hand experience, but I do know that the last two times I have visited HRO I’ve had people tell me that’s what they use and they are happy with it. So I guess there’s a place in the ham world for it.
What is their frame of reference? Did they ever spend a couple of hours using a professionally engineered and constructed antenna high in the air, free of manmade structures and trees? It's always a good idea to thoroughly evaluate sources of info. My history includes making nearly every bone-headed mistake a ham might make, especially with antennas. Once exposed to how phenomenally better hamming could be with a proper antenna, I got my act together. To my way of thinking, using a substandard antenna is a waste of time.....my time. If I have only two or three hours a week for on-air radio, I want to make contacts; either very satisfying ragchews, many contacts, or both. With a good antenna it's not difficult. "I hear signals" and "I made a contact" have little meaning without knowing what other hams are accomplishing on the same (or similar) frequency in your area. The ability to work whom we want, when we want, is very satisfying. Struggling for hours to log contacts with only the very loudest stations , while missing dozens, perhaps hundreds of other stations below one's noise floor can yield disappointment.
All I know is they were happy with their hamming experiences. They were enthusiastic hams. Nothing wrong with that.
I agree with you completely. Happy is happy. We all decide independently what makes us happy. I had too little mentoring as a novice, and I needed more advice and guidance. It wasn't available where I lived. After sixty years of hamming, I try to help others. I hope you too have fun! 73
Interesting subject and comments. No surprise the comments run from "it will work" to "it will not work....." I actually use a gutter antenna during the winter months where I live in MI. I have a two story house and use the continuous gutter run along the back of the house. I tap into one of the downspouts just outside one of my basement windows. The gutters runs about 50 feet across the roof eve on the second floor. I have connected a wire from the downspout on the non-feed side of the gutter to the gutter that runs from my garage side of the house around to the front of the house. This added another 120 feet of gutter. I use an MAT-40 tuner with an FT-891. The tuner has a counterpose attached to it and ran around the ceiling of the basement for about 60 feet. The tuner is grounded to my in-ground pool grounding system. Does it work????? Yes, it works pretty well. If I can heard them I can work them. I get signal reports that are reasonable for the conditions, with some 59+ reports. I have been able to contact folks with signals down in the noise (32) on SSB. I have had antenna systems in the past that were much more sensitive and efficient, (full wave 80 meter loop at 30 feet, various dipoles and verticals, etc.). However, for an HOA restricted location, my gutter antenna works very well. I hunt POTA, so, the signals I am receiving are generally very low, yet......my gutter antenna pulls them out for the majority of the time. Danny KF9BD
