Hi Bob,

Ground losses aren't extremely important for receiving applications. A
few extra feet of depth of ground rod isn't going to make any
difference, because the RF doesn't flow 8 feet down, or 5 feet down,
but more flows on the surface of the ground and/or some inches down
(depending on your ground conductivity profile)

As such, you could try a 4 or 5 foot ground rod.

If you want a no-pounding solution instead, lay down a few radial
wires. The length and number aren't critical. Try four or eight wires
each 1/8 wavelength long at the lowest frequency of interest.

If the noise in your receiver doesn't increase when you plug the
antenna into the RX , then you may want a better ground system. If the
noise DOES increase, then your noise floor is that of the
natural/artificial noise that your antenna is picking up, and more raw
signal from the antenna won't help anything. (Though moving the
antenna around might).

73,
Dan
N3OX
www.n3ox.net