Some time ago I attempted to make direct measurements of the HF conductivity
of trees, at least for the trunk and limbs. I simply put a two rings, with
nails to penetrate through the bark, around the trunk spaced a couple of
feet apart. Basically what I had was a resistor. I then measured the
impedance of this "resistor" using a network analyzer.
The results indicated quite a high conductivity which I simply couldn't
believe at the time. I wrote up a note on the experiment and put the note
on the shelf thinking to look into it at some later date. Of course nothing
has happened since! If anyone is interested I would be happy to share the
note, which describes the experiment, and the Excel file with the
measurement data. Maybe you can see where I went wrong or perhaps I got it
right. If I'm right then trees really are bad news in the high E-fields
associated with high voltage points.
Please contact me off the reflector. n6lf@arrl.net .
73, Rudy N6LF
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Topband Reflector
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