Making my metal roof or gutter an antenna?

[projectcop]

Howdy folks;
I am thinking about a dipole at home due to park rules. But, I would like to hide it as much as possible to avoid any questions.
I have an aluminum roof over my front porch that I have been thinking about using for part of this task. The roof and gutter on the front of it are both inverted V's.
The roof is about 6' deep and 25' wide; peaked in the center, same length both sides of the peak.
1. Can I put the dipole inside of this gutter? If so, how well would it work?
2. Under or above the gutter? Made out of white colored wire?
3. Can I make this gutter into a dipole? It is equal length on both sides. Would I insulate the gutter from the rest of the roof? It has aluminum supports that go down into the ground, so grounding it would not be an issue.
Or make the roof into an antenna?
I know, it sounds crazy; just throwing it out there for consideration.
Your thoughts??
73's

[231]

Howdy folks;
I am thinking about a dipole at home due to park rules. But, I would like to hide it as much as possible to avoid any questions.
I have an aluminum roof over my front porch that I have been thinking about using for part of this task. The roof and gutter on the front of it are both inverted V's.
The roof is about 6' deep and 25' wide; peaked in the center, same length both sides of the peak.
1. Can I put the dipole inside of this gutter? If so, how well would it work?

It won't.

2. Under or above the gutter? Made out of white colored wire?

It might if you get it far enough away.

3. Can I make this gutter into a dipole? It is equal length on both sides. Would I insulate the gutter from the rest of the roof? It has aluminum supports that go down into the ground, so grounding it would not be an issue.

You can try...but yes, it will need to be insulated and may not do so well that close to other metal items.

Or make the roof into an antenna?

With a good enough antenna tuner you'll be able to load up the roof. How well it will work is anyone's guess. My money would be it won't work very well. What about your counterpoise?

I know, it sounds crazy; just throwing it out there for consideration.
Your thoughts??
73's

Nope...not crazy at all. You have to start somewhere and you'd be surprised at how creative folks have been at hiding antennas. Truly you'd be better off utilizing your metal roof and add a 1/4 wave (102") mobile whip antenna in the center of it. People won't probably notice it at all...especially if you throw some matching color paint on it after it's tuned up. You'd simply use the roof as the counterpoise connection...it would work pretty well actually. The other option is if you happen to have a tree close by. You can hide a wire dipole in a tree quite easily. It takes some work and planning but quite doable.

Good luck.

231

[MDYoungblood]

Like what 231 said, it just won't work. I do like and was thinking about the whip idea, he just beat me to it. I would think there is worse things sticking up on some of the roofs in the park then a 1/4" dia. steel rod and the metal roof would be an excellent ground plane. If you get that and no one complains another thing to do would be to co-phase a pair on both ends of the peak, would be interesting to see a performance increase.

3's

Greg