[Lowfer] Changes in my antennas radiated output

[Andy - KU4XR]

On Tues. Sept 2nd; Paul Dalton ( WMS ) posted these comments:

Now that I am back on the air I note and increase of about 15 percent more
antenna current than I had last year. This has been one of the wettest summers we have had in years. Soil here
is clay with a layer of shale down about 30 inches. Rain has to run off
horizontally or evaporate as it doesn't penetrate the shale. 
Antenna current is measured by a ft 37 pickup coil, one turn primary in
the ant lead and 20 turns in the secondary. A 1n914 diode and 50 microamp meter in series completes the meter circuit. As I improved my ant and tx last year I removed turns until I had about 90% deflection, now I peg the 
meter on keydown. 

**** I wonder if others note a seasonal variation on antenna tuning. ****

Paul Daulton
K5WMS
Jacksonville, AR
EM34

__________________________________________________________________________

OK; I waited a few days to see what my observations were going to show.
Here in SE TN. we had a period of very rainy weather, days in a row of
good ground soaking rain that penetrated the soil and didn't just run off
as drain water.The soil here is about 1-1/2 inches of good topsoil, then just hard, rocky dirt down around a foot or so, then mixed with slate rock. During the rainy time, I noticed that my Field Strength was
indicating a higher than had been reading, not phenomenal, but about slightly more than 2 needle widths of FS increase. ( Hey; an increase is an increase !! ), Since I had just recently placed 5-50 foot radials on top of the ground, I attributed the increase possibly to a better natural groundplane ( the wet soil ) and my radials were in contact with that soil.  Now; we are in a period of no rain for days, the soil is drying and beginning to crack open again. And my Antenna output over the past few days has slowly dropped back to where it had been running all summer during the dry times. Curiosity almost has me wanting to put a sprinkler in the yard to keep the ground wet and see if that makes the output come back up. BUT; logic overrides curiosity and says that's a waste of water and money, let nature do its thing, 2 needle widths of increase won't push me into the DX zone.

73 everyone; Andy - KU4XR