Topband: Measuring ground screen resistance

[K4SB]

Rick, the way I have always done it is to measure the current
from the ground system to the coax feed braid. This does not tell
you to resistance of the ground screen, but does tell you when
you have hit the point where adding further radials does no
appreciable good.

I put out a ground screen using welded galvanized "pig" wire last
Spring, and then ran a test. The antenna I use is a 1/2 wave T (105
up and about 50 on each side ) which when modeled shows an impedence
of about 4200 ohms. It's fed with a parallel L network. After the
installation of 250 feet of the "pig wire", the current through
that old RF ampmeter of mine doubled + a little bit, and the
impedence of the antenna dropped more than 1500 ohms.

Hope this helps a little bit.

73
ed



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