Ive doubted some of the claims about fresh water swamps based only on personal experience. At a prior QTH I had them on 2 sides and extending to a mile or more and the 160 vertical "appeared" to play
EZNEC's "fresh water" selection shows a conductivity of .001 (very unconductive). So it's talking about Great Lakes fresh water away from urban polution. Question would be how conductive the swamp wa
Totally anecdotal, but from 19 to 7 years ago I lived in a "cedar swamp" (what I called it) about 30' ASL and did much better on 160m with a small antenna system, than I do here now @ 660'ASL on a ro
Well, Im on top of a pine and oak covered hill these days and RF ground resistance tests say it aint so hot; about 250 Ohms for the Beverages. There is about 8-10" of compost and then very bony soil
Leaving the conductivity at 1mS/m and changing only the permittivity from 10 to 80 in a NEC-2 model of a 160m quarterwave over 20 78 foot radials gives a big boost to the low angle radiation. About 4
The conductivity chart for the continental U.S. published by the FCC shows a conductivity of 8 mS/m for the Great Lakes. Below is a link showing the groundwave coverage contours of WATZ in Alpena, MI
Or driving around and the AM BCB got much louder when driving over a railroad track. I wonder what would happen if my radial system would be the tracks, only one since I don't want to trip the signal
Re signal improvements when over fresh water or swamp I've notice that many times on VHF or FM radio in the car and always simply suspected the effects of being in the clear without obstructions like