[Boatanchors] Loading up fences etc.

[Peter Markavage]

Don't burn the cows or whatever with the RF. Nothing worse than a testy
cow or a bull with an RF burn on the nose.

Pete, wa2cwa

On Tue, 7 Feb 2006 18:15:41 -0800 (PST) Glen Zook <gzook at yahoo.com>
writes:
> 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?