Are you folks using insulated wire for your ground radials? Seems like
one would want to, due to the effort of laying them and not wanting
to do the job all over again in a few years because of corrosion
setting in. But then if you want the radials to be in electrical
contact with the soil then they'd have to be bare.
I recall a broadcast tower we had here located near the
Ala Wai Canal (brackish water - at high tide ocean water
flows in - at low tide rainwater from mountain runoff lowers
the salinity). Someone from the station (one of the engineers?)
had laid ground radials from the tower crossing the street and
into the canal (he'd made cuts in the street's pavement). I always
wondered if he'd gotten the city's permission to do that!
(What's the old saying? "It's easier to receive forgiveness than get
permission.")
The radial wires appeared to be insulated.
Next question: Do you see a difference in impedance after a heavy
rain? Would sprinkling rock salt into the soil help to improve
ground conductivity?
Has anyone seen the broadcast towers located *in* the back waters of
San Francisco Bay? Nice idea - using the Bay as a ground plane.
73 from Hawaii,
Jeff KH2PZ / KH6
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