[Lowfer] Beverage ground question

[J. B. Weazle McCreath]

Hello Lowfers,

I've spent the last few weekends installing a "Beverage" antenna
along a fence line that I share with my farmer neighbour to the
east.  The fence runs south-west to north-east with a measured
true heading of 50/230 degrees, ideal for Europe and UK off the
front lobe and most of the central U.S. off the back.  I put up
a single wire 1200 feet long, about 3 feet above ground, and no
termination at the north-east end.  I used a 9:1 transformer at
the feed point, with separate primary and secondary windings.

The problem I had was lack of a good ground for the cold end
of the antenna winding.  Driving ground rods into the gravel soil
is no treat in the best of situations, but having to contend with
about a foot of snow and frozen ground makes it even more of
a labourious task.  After much effort I was finally able to drive
in 3 rods that are 3 feet long and spaced 3 feet apart.  I ran a
bonding wire between them and attached it to the transformer.
Results where rather disappointing.

Early today I had a thought of trying something different in an
attempt to improve the grounding.  I ran a wire from the ground
rods over to a coniferous tree about 10 feet from the feedpoint
and connected it to the trunk just above ground level with a 2
inch stainless steel screw.  Tests with my MFJ antenna analyser
showed a pretty flat SWR across the lowest range that it tunes.
This was much better than previous measurements had been,
so I headed into the shack to see if it "hears".

I was pleasantly surprised to find that signals now where coming
in pretty well on 80, 160, and the NDB bands.  My conclusion is
that the tree roots are providing a better RF ground than the 3
driven rods were.  Has anyone here ever heard of or tried this
method of grounding?  A quick Google search didn't turn up
much of anything on the subject.

73, J.B., VE3EAR - VE3WZL
Solar and wind powered
Lowfer " EAR"  188.830
EN93dr

http://www.hurontel.on.ca/~weazle