Topband: Antennas and saltwater

[Mark Schoonover]

I did the same thing unfortunately all the sacrificial zincs disappeared in
a few months.

On Mon, Dec 19, 2022, 16:18 W7TMT - Patrick <W7TMT at outlook.com> wrote:

> I run an 80' high vertical on 160M from my sailboat in the saltwater of
> Puget Sound/Salish Sea near Seattle. After experimenting with a number of
> different saltwater connections I've simplified it to a single piece of
> 1/2" dia. copper pipe 10' long and tapped in the middle. I hang it
> horizontally over the side just below the water surface. Works great.
>
> I recently ran across a post by SE0X running  an 160/80M vertical on a
> floating dock who uses two lengths of suspended pipe. His RBN testing
> suggested that adding a second one made a difference. Details here:
> http://blog.se0x.info/?p=3442#more-3442
>
> 73
> Patrick, W7TMT
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Topband <topband-bounces+w7tmt=outlook.com at contesting.com> On
> Behalf Of GEORGE WALLNER
> Sent: Monday, December 19, 2022 14:19
> To: Radio KH6O <radio.kh6o at gmail.com>; topband at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: Topband: Antennas and saltwater
>
> If the antenna stands in the salt-water or if you have a short, low
> impedance connection to the water, you don't need radials.
> During the VK9WWI DXpedition to Willis Islets, we installed a vertical on
> a sand spit that was covered by water most of the time. We had 12 radials
> of various lengths a couple of feet above the water. The antenna was fed
> via an antenna coupler (tuner) mounted on its base. Every night during high
> tide the waves knocked down and washed the radials into a tangled mess. For
> the first three days we restored the radials every morning. But we never
> noticed any difference between when the radials were up or when they were
> in a heap at the base of the antenna. After three days we got rid of the
> radials. The antenna had a heavy metal base which was always in contact
> with the water.
> Ever since then, on various DXpeditions (TX3A, VK9GMW, PT0S, etc.), we
> always put the antennas into the water (or the very edge of it where we
> drive into the sand a grounding stake) and never bothered with radials.
>
> Years ago I had a vertical at C6AGU standing in the water. During one
> night a storm knocked it down. I reinstalled it up the beach about 75 feet
> from the high tide line. I added 16 radials about 3 feet above the sand, I
> was told that my 160 m signal was down 10 dB. I put the antenna back in the
> water and had a good signal again. Whether the difference was really 10 dB,
> I don't know. But it was substantial. (That was before RBN.) 73, George,
> AA7JV/C6AGU
>
> On Mon, 19 Dec 2022 09:23:54 -0800 Radio KH6O  wrote:
> >> Ideal is if you can run some RG58 out to the beach and plunk it next
> >> to thewater.  Also use 4 radials there.Enjoy.Ed  N1UR
>
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