[IRCA] "New Antenna Works Out Well" becomes "R-F grounds"

["Charles A Taylor" <wd4inp@xxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barry McLarnon" <bdm@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America" 
<irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: <am@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 4:44 PM
Subject: [IRCA] New Antenna Works Out Well

"Also, the ground is good old "Canadian Shield" - mostly rock under a 
thin layer of topsoil, so it's very difficult to get an effective 
ground."

Barry,

I think what you need is capacitive coupling to earth, and if the 
rock, like cement contains moisture, it will be a good
conductor.

If it is not conductive, then maybe a 1 meter² counterpoise of 
"chicken wire" (how do you wire a chicken?) , buried or unburied, will 
do the job.

Anyone else care to add to/subtract from this line of reasoning?

Charlie

Charles A Taylor, WD4INP
   Grifton, North Carolina


  Even if I could somehow fit them in, ground-dependent antennas such
> as the K9AY or EWE probably wouldn't work very well.  I pondered
> ground-independent designs like the flag and pennant, and decided I 
> could
> squeeze in a pennant.  Of course, everyone knows you should keep AM 
> antennas
> well clear of noise sources like houses and power lines, but that's
> impossible in my case.  I ended up anchoring one end of the pennant 
> (the
> "fat" end) on a corner of the house, and running it diagonally to a 
> pole
> attached to the back fence (yep, right under the power lines).  I 
> wasn't
> optimistic about the chances of this setup working well, so I didn't 
> get
> fancy with variable terminations - I just used a fixed 900 ohm 
> termination,
> and coupled to the antenna with a 600:50 ohm wideband transformer 
> that I had
> in the junkbox, connected to a RG-58 feedline.  I didn't have much 
> choice in
> the orientation of the pennant, but it ended up aimed ESE - WNW, 
> favoring the
> latter direction... aimed, in fact, right into my neighbor's house, 
> not more
> than 10-15 ft away. :-(  The lowest point of the pennant is about 6 
> ft off
> the ground, and the highest point about 20 ft up.
>
> I got it up on Friday afternoon, and quickly checked it out with 
> some
> groundwave signals... nothing remarkable noted in the way of signal
> strengths, but I was surprised and gratified to find that the 
> pennant was
> noticeably less noisy than the 40 m dipole, even though the dipole 
> is higher
> and more in the clear.
>
> I came back a couple of hours later, an hour or so after sunset, and 
> the new
> antenna proved itself almost immediately.  I logged CBON12, a 40 W 
> repeater
> on 1090 in Mattawa ON, about 150 miles WNW of me.  I wasn't even 
> aware of its
> existence until now.  Powerhouse WBAL was fairly subdued, apparently 
> helped
> by the directional properties of the antenna.  This was extremely
> encouraging, and apparently not a fluke... last night I snagged 
> much-wanted
> WJMS-590 in Ironwood MI, about 700 miles due west of me.  I also 
> noticed very
> good signals from stations to the west such as CKLQ-880, CJGX-940, 
> and
> KJJK-1020.  Before hitting the sack, I decided to try for one of my
> most-wanted stations , setting up on 1070 with overnight recording. 
> Sure
> enough, checking the recordings today, I found KNX several times, 
> poking
> through pesty CHOK, with my other pest CBA nulled on the backside. 
> Now I
> don't have to wait for them to move to FM before I hear KNX. :-)
>
> I wasn't expecting much, but in the first two days, I bagged three 
> great new
> catches.  I'd say that new chunk of wire is a success!  Just goes to 
> show it
> never hurts to try something out, even if conventional wisdom says 
> that it
> isn't likely to work.
>
> Barry
>
> -- 
> Barry McLarnon  VE3JF  Ottawa, ON
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