Topband: Beverage ground rod substitute

[Chuck]

I've always wondered how much effect Bentonite would have and assumed 
the Bentonite's "local" influence doesn't help much. On the other hand, 
it gets tiring to carry buckets of sea water up a hill to pour sea water 
around the ground rods of Newfoundland Beverages that don't work well 
until they get some water and salt in the ground rod hole. So obviously 
there is more effect than I would have guessed using skin depth (around 
30 feet for average .001/5 soil) as a rough guide.

Any explanations available?

Chuck

On 1/23/2011 10:23 AM, John Langdon wrote:
> Thomas,
>
> I have similar soil - caliche on top of limestone.  I could fit about a 480'
> run towards EU on my lot. I drilled a hole in the limestone for a ground
> rod, and backfilled it with Bentonite clay. I also added several ground
> straps (not wire but 4' wide strap) out about 10' from the ground rod.  The
> straps seemed to lessen the noise and improve the signal to noise ratio -
> strictly an anecdotal observation but I thought it was worth the effort, and
> did the same thing on another shorter beverage toward JA.
>
> 73 John N5CQ
>
>