[TowerTalk] antennas in water

[John - K4WJ]

While living in south Florida, after a very heavy rain I continued to work 
DX on 80 and 40M as I normally would. Then I discovered that the feed point 
for my Butternut HF-2V, that I had mounted on the side of a small man made 
lake, was under about 18 inches of water. The heavy rain caused the lake to 
rise about two feet.

I guess the water in the lake was not a very good conductor.

What really surprised me was that the SWR on both bands hadn't changed much.

73..de John/K4WJ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "CRAIG CLARK" <jcclark at wildblue.net>
To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 10:35 AM
Subject: [TowerTalk] antennas in water


> My 160 vertical is located in a fresh water swamp. The key to it's success
> has been the thousands of feet of radial wire I have laid down.....not on
> the water. I located it there as it was away from the house and out of 
> sight
> from the wife and the road, not for any perceived benefit from location.
>
> Fresh water is not a good conductor. With all due respect to other 
> posters,
> most of the comments have been anecdotal in nature and do not reflect any
> scientific measurements of performance.
>
> I have done any number of searches from Terman to Laport and Google and 
> can
> find nothing that touts locating an antenna in fresh water to enhance
> performance.
>
> 73 Craig
>