I have been using my rain gutter and it has been working great on HF bands.
Trying that now, and have some questions.
Some background: Yaesu 897D multiband with Diamond 2m/70cm on mast at roof peak. Now looking to add HF.
1. Aluminum downspouts & gutter on West facing side of my house appear electrically continuous. I checked between a few segments that were riveted and resistance is zero. Rubber boot to ground drain shows infinite resistance.
2. I ran a self-tapping screw into the downspout with some inside/outside star washer for good metal-to-metal contact, and ran a 8ft 12g solid wire to my window pass-thru bolt, and then another 3ft 12g wire from bolt to MFJ-898D Tuner. Electrical continuity tested OK.
3. I ran a 12g wire from the tuner ground bolt (which is grounded by an 8ft copper-clad rod driven outside the window and connected with 1/2in tinned copper braid) to another pass-thru bolt. On the outside of that bolt, I have four 22g insulated wires bundled together for counterpoise, cut to 1/4 wavelength for 10m, 17m, 20m ad 40m, with taped ends. These run down 4 feet to where the vinyl siding meets the concrete foundation, then I tucked them between the siding and foundation so the bundle runs parallel to the gutter about 3ft off the earth.
4. Just listening on the bands, I hear a lot of noise, with an occasional voice I can almost make out on 20m or 40m, and some CW here and there too.
Questions:
1. Do I need to run a counterpoise to directly to ground too?
2. Is a unun or balun needed?
3. I'm thinking to add a Yaesu FC-40 remote autotuner outside by the downspout to keep the wire and RFI outside. Thoughts?
Thanks! (...and I though reloading was black-magic...)