[TowerTalk] FW: low band antenna without good ground

[Gene Fuller]

I tried Alumoweld once and it dissolved within 5-10 years.
Gene / W2LU


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Lux" <jimlux at earthlink.net>
To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2011 11:56 AM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] FW: low band antenna without good ground


> On 9/25/11 1:25 AM, km5vi wrote:
>>
>>> From ON4UN's Low-Band DXing regarding ground enhancements using mesh
>> screening...   "Steel is a very poor conductor at RF"
> 
> 
> Steel may be a poor conductor (skin effect makes it worse), but it's 
> still orders of magnitude better than soil.
> 
> think of radials as increasing the conductivity of the soil.  If you 
> have a conductor that fills 1 millionth the cross section, and is a 
> million times the conductivity, you'll just match.
> 
> Soil is on the order of .5 to 30 milliSiemens/meter
> 
> Copper is 60 megaSiemens/meter
> 
> that's 9 orders of magnitude.
> 
> 
> I suppose if one is comparing an antenna with copper radials to one with 
> aluminum to one with steel, all with the same size conductors, the 
> copper will be better than the others.  But, comparing to no radials, 
> they'll ALL be better, and that's usually the ham situation.
> 
> If you put down 10 times as much aluminum as copper, clearly, you're 
> better off with the aluminum.
> 
> 
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