On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 04:13:37 GMT, Richard Clark
wrote:

On Sat, 17 Jul 2004 10:30:16 -0500, Bob Miller
wrote:

I'd like to enhance the pipe with a few buried radials. I happen to
have a 500' roll of 14-guage stranded *insulated* copper wire. Will
the insulation keep the wire from becoming "one with the dirt"?

Or should I go buy some bare solid copper wire?

Hi Bob,

Insulated will make a poor 60Hz safety ground (which you should
connect this ground to anyway). Insulated wire will make a perfectly
good RF ground (upwards to 5 orders of magnitude frequency shift makes
a considerable difference in what ground "means"). The pipe, on the
other hand, serves very little purpose. It is inadequate for a safety
ground, and useless for RF and maybe just suitable for providing a
mast base. It does give you a physical reference point - kinda like a
big solder lug.

Use up all your wire and enjoy - another 500 or 5000 feet won't bring
as much return as the first 500. For radials, try 10 X 50 feet, or 50
X 10 feet or something in between.

Question -- is there a problem in using a safety ground as an rf
ground, too? If I connected 10x50-ft bare, buried radials to my little
pipe, and used it as a safety ground for the station, and also as a
ground to work an inverted "L" against, would that be a problem, or
should I have separate ground points?

Tnx to all who have replied so far...

Bob
k5qwg


73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC