Topband: Snow Effect

[Dan Zimmerman N3OX]

> I am using a 1/4 wave inverted L with 16 burried radials. The recent snow
> has made me wonder what effect the snow will have on my ground plane?

My base loaded 60 foot vertical with small ground system (40ft x 40ft
square + a few longer radials) shows some minor detuning with a
snow/ice coat.  The effect is more if the fiberglass pole supporting
the wire is wet or icy, but there's some detuning even when I put the
pole up clean and dry.  When the snow and ice melted, the resonances
shifted back to normal.

The 2:1 SWR BW on my vertical is about 20kHz  and the shift was about
10kHz, maybe 15.  I've got a few coil taps to cover 1800-1860 normally
so it wasn't a big deal.

I doubt any of this has much effect on performance, but maybe others
can comment.

Dan