Re: Longest practical ground cable?

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

considering that most TC's run at a few hundred kHz, max, the wavelength is
on the order of hundreds of meters, so 30 feet is nothing if you are
worried about resonant feed line problems.

A bigger issue will be the series inductance.  Try it and see.  If you
start to have odd problems, keep your earth ground, and add a chicken wire
counterpoise under the coil.


Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Garry Freemyer by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <garry-at-ndfc-dot-com>
> 
> What's the longest RF ground cable I can have?
> 
> I've been thinking maybe I could drive a rod on the edge of my porch.
> Trouble is, the thing is 30' away. That seems to be too long. With ham
> radio, if I remember correctly, the ideal ground cable has to be shorter
> than a quarter wave of the frequency you are transmitting on or it could act
> as an antenna.
> 
> I'm assuming it's the same with TC's