Topband: Ground Screens

[Dennis G. Peterson]

I suppose this is somewhat old hat material, but I will add my 2 cents worth
to this subject as well.

When I lived in the Pacific Northwest of Auburn, WA - a small town of 28000
plus south of Seattle, I used a 50 foot square of 1 inch mesh chicken wire
ground screen laid on the ground and covered with 3 inches of topsoil.  This
screen was in rolls of I believe 25 foot sections and thus required cutting
and lying side by side and then tieing with wire and soldering in order to
get a good connection.  There were 7 ground rods of copper 5 foot lengths
driven into the corners, center of the square and 3 feet each side of my
home made 80 foot vertical.  The vertical was insulated from ground and fed
directly against the wire mesh ground screen.  Since I didn't live near the
salt water areas like alot of the topband operators around Seattle did, I
decided to try an experiment and trick the antenna into thinking it was
lying in salt water.

After getting the grass to grow over the lawn and screen area, I dug two
holes, one each side of the vertical the diameter size of a 5 gallon bucket
so that the bucket itself could sit inside the hole with its tops on.  A
ground rod was driven next to each bucket and a copper strap was tied to the
rods and inserted inside the buckets with rock salt emptied inside the
bucket.  A hole was cut for a 1" piece of PVC conduit to fit inside each
bucket about 1/2 inch above the top of each lid.

The buckets were placed in each hole so that when they were inserted, they
were about 1 inch below the surface area to allow rain water when it rained
or the sprinkler system to flood the salt mixture in each bucket during lawn
watering.  This system worked for me for nearly 7 years while trying to work
DX to Europe and I must say that I was successful but not all the time.  I
even disconnected the salt water system and tried without and my signal
dropped tremendously and most noticeably throughout the western and midwest
area.

I took an old timers tale and put it to use----"Listen to what is being said
about antennas and how the operator is using it and what he is using, then
take that information and adapt it to your own particular situation or
scenario; remembering, WHAT WORKS FOR ONE MAY NOT WORK FOR ANOTHER- BUT the
information gained can lead you to an antenna that gets you on the air and
works for you.  All you will need then is to refine and improve upon what
you have."

With regards to using bailer twine for antenna guying, my personal feeling
is why bother with string?  If the antenna requires guying, do it right the
first time unless you don't mind the cost of doing it the second time due to
inferior and careless rigging.

There's my 2 cents worth.............K0CKD/Dennis