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Re: RF ground - what if you can't use a ground rod?

Original poster: "Willem Bosma" <wbosma@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Hello Tom,

Even a buried 8 ft copper pipe is no decent RF ground!
It could be enough for line frequencies, but as radio amateurs know, you should have a distributed ground , say at least 4 pipes buried several ft from each other. This even holds for sea water! So I think you could, superficially, bury chicken wire (a few square yards) which would give you a good enough RF counterpoise for your tc, to let the secondary stay in tune.
Regards,
Willem Bosma, PA0TW

----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 5:59 AM
Subject: RF ground - what if you can't use a ground rod?


Original poster: "Coyle, Thomas M." <tcoyle@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Our ground here is solid granite, topped by a couple feet of rock-hard
clay, topped by a handful of inches of soil. No way am I going to be
able to punch in an 8' ground rod for the RF ground (wish I'd thought of
this before I bought it). Are there any other alternatives? Can I bury a
couple square feet worth of copper plate under the soil, maybe? Or maybe
take the rod and bury it horizontally? Any suggestions?

Thanks again,

Tom