| Author |
Message |
    
vernonott
| | Posted on Sunday, July 08, 2001 - 8:54 pm: | 
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307: I've noticed that after a hard soaking rain my system will do considerbly higher watts on the Dosy.Do you think this is a indication that my system is not grounded as good as it could be? |
Skullman
| | Posted on Monday, July 09, 2001 - 6:27 pm: |
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My base does that too vern, if you'll notice your SWR's probably drop a little bit, thus the more power, less loss occurs. Try running a ground wire off the antenna to a copper rod drove in the ground, this could help even out the playing field. Seems to me though that wet soil just grounds better that dry. Go figure. Sometimes you just can't compensate for the change in nature. |
WALTERB
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 10, 2001 - 1:38 am: |
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Your radio will hear better after it rains and you will get out farther. If you are over water in a boat you will be able to get out and hear much farther than land, because of the better ground plane under the station and you can take that to the Bank! |
707
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 10, 2001 - 5:57 pm: |
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just an idea that worked pretty good for me....
I have my own water wells on the property. You might consider running a ground lead out to the water well, if its close to the house, and tie your radio system and antenna ground to the water well ground lead. DO NOT DO THIS WITHOUT TESTING THE GROUND POTENTIAL BETWEEN HOUSE AND WELL, nor if the water well ground is less than 10g wire. You must be careful with this, because of potential high voltage differences between house and well electrical system. If it all looks good, you can attach to the well ground and have a MUCH better ground than house wiring ground alone. AGAIN...BE CAREFUL with this and do not attempt if there is any substantial voltage potential between house and well ground. I won't be responsible if you fry the radio or yourself.
In the absence of water well grounding, you might try tying a heavy ground conductor to the city or rural water line right at ground level, if it is metal pipe. usually, the water lines run fairly deep and are long enough to give lots of surface contact to ground. Don't try this with the gas pipe and 500w amp, though, or you might not need a radio to get out of the neighborhood. |
vernonott
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 10, 2001 - 8:19 pm: |
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707: I don't have a water well and our city water lines are CPVC plastic.
I may just run a water hose around the base of my mast a couple days a week.How about it? |
707
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 11, 2001 - 7:11 pm: |
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the other trick i have seen done involves using a water hose to "drill" a hole in the ground several feet deep. You may do this by attaching a 3 foot length of 1" pvc to the end of the hose, turn on full blast, then push pipe into ground, and continue drilling down, as the water pressure will dig through the dirt pretty nicely, until you have the pipe buried, then push some more, hose and all, until you get about 10 feet deep. Remove drilling apparatus, then get a long length of 1g copper twisted bare cable, drop the end in the hole, all the way in, with some sticking out the top to attach to. Then fill around the cable with sand. This is much like driving a ground stake, but you have pre-wetted the ground all the way in. |
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