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Re: [TowerTalk] W7PUA Tiny Ground Probe

To: "towertalk@contesting.com" <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] W7PUA Tiny Ground Probe
From: Brian Beezley <k6sti@att.net>
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2026 17:05:35 -0800
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
K9YC said:

"But it does show trends that can help us think about the viability of vertical antennas..."

The FCC conductivity map indicates a conductivity of 4 mS/m for N6LF's QTH in Oregon. In January Rudy measured 22 mS/m at 1 MHz in his field. The map indicates 15 mS/m for AE5CZ's QTH in New Mexico. Larry measured 0.45 mS/m at 1 MHz in a sandy wash near his home.

Because of gross discrepancies like these, I think both the FCC map and the ARRL ground constants are worthless.

If you don't want to measure your own ground, I think the best alternative is to use the Hagn generic ground constants. I have no way to verify their accuracy, but they were devised by a professional who performed ground measurements worldwide for years. This writeup shows graphs and tables of the Hagn values, extrapolations to LF/MF/VHF, and provides a link to Hagn's paper that describes the theory and measurements underlying everything:

https://k6sti.neocities.org/hfgc

Brian

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