[160m] GROUND SCREEN

[Mike Waters]

Hello Pete,

I have a well casing that goes down about 350 feet. My previous QTH had one
that went down 625 feet. However, I doubt that either one would have been as
effective as a radial system RF ground. (Maybe a lightning ground. Having
said that, I would never use a well casing as a lightning ground, as I have
a pump near the bottom, and I'd like to continue to have water coming out my
faucets after a thunderstorm. ;-)

I've noticed that many people are willing to sweat bullets driving multiple
ground rods, or hang by their vitals from the top of a tall tower, but yet
they have a problem walking a across the surface of this planet to lay down
an effective wire radial system. It's hard to beat a system of 60 or so
radials laid on the ground.

I'm not trying to pick a fight with you, but that's my experience. I tried
the 625' well casing (with no radials) against a T antenna on 160 with
dismal results.

73 Mike

On Sun, May 30, 2010 at 9:13 AM, Pete Rimmel <n8pr at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> David
>
> The only effective ground "stake" i have used is my well casing that goes
> down to the water 160 feet below my lot.  When I connected to it, it was
> very effective.  As Tom said, short stakes don't really help. If you have a
> well try connecting it to the rest with some  braid or fairly large guage
> wire.  Good luck with it.
>
> 73,  Pete N8PR
>
>