[Elecraft] BL-2 Connection To An Unbalanced Wire Antenna

[Jim Brown]

On Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:43:39 -0700, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:

>But it *IS* a ground for RF purposes

Nope! It has NO relationship with the earth, nor is one needed. This 
use of the word "ground" is an ongoing source of confusion and 
misunderstandings. Hams to go extremes to install ground rods, 
thinking that it will improve the performance of their antennas or 
make their radios quieter or fix RFI. A connection to earth does NOT 
do any of those things. It IS critical for lightning protection. 
That's all. 

Radials are not GROUND in any sense. They are part of the antenna! 
Indeed, their purpose is to intercept the fields produced by the 
antenna and by providing a low resistance path for return currents, 
prevent those fields from producing current in the lossy earth. 
There is an excellent discussion of this by Rudy Severns, N6LF, both 
in the ARRL Antenna Book and on his website. 

73,

Jim Brown K9YC