I would not expect a tree to provide a sufficient ground, and plants
typically do not survive high voltages.
Your house has a 220V service line coming into the house. Typically, there
is a grounding rod driven into the ground at this location. You probably
you be best off driving in your dedicated ground nearby to that one. As
there is one ground rod, I would expect the soil in that region to be
sufficiently soft for another. Alternatively, I suppose you could use your
house ground, however, I would advise against that as all of your household
electronics are directly connected.
Has anyone used a counterpoise as a floating ground? If so, what were the
dimensions? I recall reading that someone once used a twin coil as a
floating ground with some success. Effectively, just a 1/2 wave coil with a
conventional driven 1/4 wave coil. As I recall, the "ground" lead was hot.
Yours truly,
Mike Day
From: Dave Leddon <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: Tesla Coil Mailing List <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2012 09:40:09 -0700
To: Tesla Coil Mailing List <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [TCML] Using tree as RF ground
Hi all,
I have recently moved to a new house which, as near as I can tell,
sits on top of a granite hill. I've tried pounding in an eight-foot
ground rod at various locations only to hit impenetrable soil at a
depth of about one to two feet. The property has numerous large pine
trees with diameters ranging up to 4 feet and it occurred to me that
such a tree might make a great RF ground by driving a spike into the
trunk near the base. Does anybody have experience using trees for
grounding Tesla Coils and is there any likelihood that the current
could damage the tree?
Dave
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