Topband: Two Wire Beverage Query...

[Chuck Hutton]

I have a different picture of penetration versus soil types.

The usual method for specifying RF peentration is to calculate the value
where the field has declined to 1/e where e is the base for natural logs. In
other words, where the intensity has fallen to 37% of the reference value.

The resulting penetration at 1.8 mHz for some common soil types is:

dry sandy soil                       165 feet
dry clay soil                         117 feet
moist low conductivity soil    37 feet
wet sandy soil                       9 feet
moist high conductivity soil    4 feet

In other words, then entire length of a ground rod is effective for anything
but the wettest, most conductive soil.


Chuck

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donald Chester" <k4kyv at hotmail.com>
To: <topband at contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, August 20, 2004 4:16 PM
Subject: Re: Topband: Two Wire Beverage Query...


 Unless you have very poor soil conductivity,
> the rf isn't going to penetrate the soil very far, and a ground rod driven
> below where the rf penetrates could just as well be made of fibreglass.  I
> just lay radials on top of the ground, and if they are not taken up, they
> very soon become buried under the thatch, and eventually sod.  The latest
> addition to my beverage project doesn't even use a ground rod.
>