[Elecraft] Attic Antenna

[Stuart Rohre]

Hi antenna challenged fellow hams.  You can do your own stealth gutter 
antenna these days.

Two easy ways:   1)   Get a combination of metal gutter and one short 
section of plastic gutter to join two metal halves of a dipole.  Remember, 
you can use shorter than quarter wave lengths of elements, since their cross 
section is large compared to wavelength.

2) Even easier:   Get all plastic.  Lay dipole elements in bottom of plastic 
gutter.  Even hook up wire can be used for elements.  Glue them to corner of 
gutter bottom that will be furtherest from the house.  Better still, glue 
them UNDER the gutter corner, so water in gutter will not stand on antenna 
wire.  Use 1/4 inch coax feed to feedpoint, or twin lead, again glued to 
underside of gutter.  Run it into soffit, and then to rig.
An all band tuner, will facilitate operations on multiple bands, especially 
if the dipole is at least 60 per cent of a half wave for the lowest 
frequency of interest.

Your nearest Lowe's or Home Depot is already a stealth antenna store, and 
you did not know it.  Even coax can be purchased there!

I regularly use insulators and standoff's from Home Depot's electric fence 
department for various home antenna projects.  They have a compression 
spring for electric fence gates that is ideal for relieving stress in a 
dipole element tied to a tree.  Unlike a door spring which is extension 
type, this spring will not elongate with use.  At least, not as much as 
extension springs.

Stuart
K5KVH