Labor Day here in the USA! So a day to play for most of us. Depending on the weather I may get a bit more on air time, but I have a project lined up too.

Some time ago I purchased a Deluxe Tuner kit from Dan’s Small Parts and Kits aka a QRP Mini Tuner by Mark L. Meyer as described in a 73 magazine article. It is a nice little set of parts and a schematic for the price.

QRP Mini Tuner Kit

So I’m thinking this holiday might be the time to build that little T tuner out and see if I can load up the downspout that runs down the side of my back porch. I’ll let you know how it works!

Hope the bands hold up. Tonight’s QRP-L has a message from N4QA about how nice 40m is sounding right now! Sure would be fun to have our bands back from the QRN and low sunspot streak of late!

I found this fascinating quote today:

I have read about rain gutter and downspout antennas but never tried loading my own or worked somebody using one, until earlier this week when I had a QSO with Craig, KA1GYB.  During our 80m PSK31 chat Craig told me he was using a downspout antenna and had worked 42 countries and 42 states, including Alaska, from his Connecticut QTH with that antenna. His signal gave great copy for me and I was very impressed.  He told me he could load it on 160m to 6m, using an antenna tuner.va3stl blog about Downspout Antenna

You should read the whole article.

As a condo dweller with antenna restrictions, this approach has appeal. Do you have experience with doing this? Our downspouts are connected to plastic piping leading to an underground drain. I assume if they are wet, it might be a tall dummy load.

Pipe in on this if you have some thoughts.