[TowerTalk] Impact of high water table levels on antennas

[Michael Tope]

I think that would be true for a fresh water lake, John. OTOH, I would 
expect the the conductivity of water saturated soil to depend heavily on 
what materials dissolve into the water from the dry soil.

73, Mike W4EF...........

On 11/3/2013 3:37 PM, john at kk9a.com wrote:
> I do not think fresh water has much effect on verticals and even less on
> horizontal antennas.
>
> John KK9A
>
> To:"towertalk at contesting.com" <towertalk at contesting.com>
> Subject:[TowerTalk] Impact of high water table levels on antennas
> From:Rudy Bakalov <r_bakalov at yahoo.com>
>
> Ever since I have put up two inv-Vs, one for 80m and one for 160m, with
> their
> apexes at roughly 90', I have been puzzled by their exceptional performance.
> Ditto for my vertical on 40m.  I have done tons of comparisons using skimmer
> data and my signal seems to be pretty darn close to the big stations I am
> using
> as my benchmark. The performance is so good that I have been wondering if I
> should bother with building 4SQs. I have read tons of books on antennas and
> the
> performance of these two antennas simply does not match what the books
> describe.
>
> I shared my thoughts with a friend of mine (a WRTC2014 participant) and he
> shared a similar experience with his station. He recently relocated to a new
> place, about 30 miles from his old place, and his antennas at the new place
> perform significantly better than the old location. Same antennas, tower,
> feed
> line, and FLAT terrain.  His only explanation is that the new place had a
> very
> high water table that somehow impacted antenna performance.
>
> This is when I realized that I also have a very high water table. Even in
> the
> driest months of summer, the area around my tower is damp and the grass is
> very
> green, growing like crazy. This was the obvious common element between his
> and
> my situations.
>
> I have not seen anything on high water tables in my antenna books.  The soil
> itself is mostly sandy. The impact I believe I am seeing is mostly on the
> lower
> bands, but I am not sure if this is also the case on the upper bands as at
> 105'
> my antennas are a bit too high.
>
> Is there any rationale in our thinking? Can high water table explain better
> than expected performance from low band antennas? If so, what is the theory
> behind it and how do I take advantage of it? If not, any other suggestions
> for
> why the antennas work so well?
>
>
> Rudy N2WQ
>
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