[TowerTalk] low band antenna without good ground

[Mike Baker]

A number of years ago,(1971?) a fellow in Colorado obtained a pile of 9" X
9" concrete reinforcing wire mesh. It uses a wire about 10 or 12Ga and is a
welded mesh sold in matts that were 4 X 8.  He took them to a Plating
company (probably Denver Metal Plating) and had them acid washed and hot dip
galvanized.
They were laid down as a ground screen and mechanically joined with either
split bolts and hardware or some type of compression clamp. Straps of copper
tied the sections together near the feed point of his tower (fed the tower
for 160M) and connected just above ground. Checked it out, liked what he
saw, covered it with a sprinkler system and SOD.  Nice.
Lots of work and I am sure a few $$$ but a very nice ground plane. 

I don't recall exactly how many matts of wire he said he obtained but it was
something in the 3 digits range. 100+?
I know it covered about 4 acres of land because there was a bunch of pallets
of sod to be laid and perhaps 20+ people installing it!

Don't recall his name nor his call, he lived on a hill in Northglenn
Colorado and I think he owned 160 and 80M. I saw WAS and DXCC on his shack
wall and both were for 160M.  He had a NEW Drake C-Line for gear.  ;>)

I just wish I had about 9 of those matts today...


Mike Baker  K7DD
K7dd at cox.net
All QSO's are uploaded to LOTW and EQSL.

-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Alex Malyava
Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 9:58 PM
To: ROBERT HARMON
Cc: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] low band antenna without good ground

Welcome to the club, Bob :)

I had wrong impression that chicken mesh is aluminum... Nope, that's
galvanized steel. I found one place which sell bronze, but the price is
killing - 300 bucks for 50 feet roll 3 feet wide.
Looks like my only option is to get a couple of rolls of #16 or #18 wire and
"plant" it.


On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 10:18 PM, ROBERT HARMON <k6uj at pacbell.net> wrote:

> You guys have me interested also.  I have a small lot only 70 feet by 
> 120 feet.
> Do you think I would wasting my time with this small of an area for 
> rolling out the ground screen for the low bands ?
>
> Bob
> K6UJ
>
>
>
> On Sep 23, 2011, at 9:18 AM, Mark Robinson wrote:
>
> > Great ideas. I am going to try that this winter. I have a roll of 
> > some of that farm fencing in the barn. It has big squares at the top 
> > and smaller squares to the bottom. I haven't seen the square plate 
> > device that you mention here but I will do some internet searching.
> >
> >
> > Mark N1UK
> >
> >
> >
> >> Larry wrote:
> >>> The small square image on the web site you pointed to looks like a 
> >>> split ground wire bolt. I have not seen them as galvanized before 
> >>> but they are readily available in several sizes in brass in the
> electrical
> >>> departments of places like Home Depot and Lowes. I suppose it is 
> >>> the "No image" pieces you were really pointed at.
> >>>
> >>
> >> That's correct. The missing image is of a pair of square plates in 
> >> galvanized steel, that bolt together with interlocking fingers to 
> >> make crossover connections. They're just perfect for the stock 
> >> fencing that I described, with its large square mesh.
> >>
> >
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