[TowerTalk] Vertical Antenna Close to Fresh Water

[Roger Parsons]

There was a short discussion a while ago on whether a vertical was better ground mounted fed against ground radials or up in the air fed against resonant radials. The general consensus was that 'up in the air' was better - but that is directly contrary to my experience.

The only thing different about my situation is that I have several verticals very close to the edge of a large fresh water lake. They work better than similar verticals several hundred feet from the lake, and better than verticals up in the air.

Conventional wisdom has it that as the conductivity of fresh water is quite low, it should make no difference at all - but it seems that in my case it does. I have a couple of hypotheses and would welcome comments:

(1) The soil in this area is pretty poor with rock a foot or two below the surface everywhere. Anything must be better than that - but surely a large ground system would negate that.

(2) The surface of the lake is pretty flat (:-) so that there is a good first reflection - better than that from rocks and trees. ('My' lake is north of my property, and as I am on a bit of a promontory covers rather more than 180 degrees.)

Any thoughts?

73 Roger
VE3ZI