[Boatanchors] Loading up fences etc.

[Glen Zook]

It depends on what type of fence posts are used with a
barb wire fence.  If wood they will work OK in dry
weather.  If metal (like many posts today) the wire is
effectively grounded and won't work.  Remember that
the antenna is still going to be very close to the
ground and the pattern is going to be more of straight
up than a low angle of radiation.

Out in west Texas there are still telephone lines run
to some ranch houses that use the barb wire fence. 
These are on wooden posts.  One side of the line hooks
to one wire and the other side hooks to another wire. 
At gates they just run an insulated wire that is
buried under the roadway to connect the fence wires to
continue the circuit.

When it rains (not very often) the line gets really
noisey or even "shorts out" until things dry out for a
few days.

Technically these systems shouldn't work.  However,
like the bumble bee that aeronautical engineers say
can't fly, no one ever told the ranchers and those
fence / telephone lines sometimes run for miles from
the main road.

As for antennas made from gutters and down spouts rain
doesn't usually have that much of an effect on them
when it stops raining.  When raining, it depends on
the installation.

Now ice and snow should have a marked effect until the
ice or snow melts.

However, when someone has to use stealth antennas
using a metal gutter / downspout is sure a lot better
than no antenna at all.

Glen, K9STH


--- "Duane Fischer, W8DBF" <dfischer at usol.com> wrote:

What about a barb wire or other wire fence where the
actual wire is strung?
 
Additionally, what happens, good or not so good, when
it rains or snows on, or in, an antenna made from an
evestrough or a rain downspout?








Glen, K9STH

Web sites

http://home.comcast.net/~k9sth
http://home.comcast.net/~zcomco

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com