[Lowfer] SIW (WM) in CT

[Michael Sapp]

Mike: Thanks for your additional information.  If you want to try deeper 
ground rods there are commercially available
"ground rod couplers" you can use to drive sectional ground rods to deeper 
total lengths.  If you search "ground rod coupler"
on google you should be able to find some products on the first search page 
that appear to be usable with standard ground rods available at the home 
center or electrical supply stores. Shop around as the prices tend to vary 
considerably.  Worst case is you may have to tap thread the end of the rod 
for joining the next section---and figure out how to support the rod while 
on a ladder trying to drive it in place. (or cut the rod in half and use 
twice as many couplers)  I found an air hammer to be a more controlled 
alternative to a sludge hammer for rod driving. I took a spare air hammer 
bit and cut the shaft  off flush to put in the air hammer chuck. That gave a 
solid surface for impact transfer to the head of the ground rod...lots of 
shale and sandstone at my QTH so it was a bit of a challenge to get the rods 
all the way down in the bottom of the French drain trench. I found that 
sometimes the sledgehammer worked better and sometimes the air hammer was 
the best depending on what the rod was driving through in the ground at a 
given point in the work.
A 2x4 support frame with holes for the rod was also a big help to limit the 
rod flexing under impact while driving it in the ground....

It would be (real) tempting to tap into the water table level if it is only 
10 feet down.....

Thanks again for all your beaconing. Great to see your WM signal come into 
EN90 when the LF band conditions are enhanced...

73 Mike wa3tts


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "N8OOU" <n8oou at meekfarm.us>
To: "Discussion of the Lowfer (US, European, & UK) and MedFer bands" 
<lowfer at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2017 8:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Lowfer] SIW (WM) in CT


> Mike tts,
>
> I remember you writing about your grounding upgrade a while back. I was 
> impressed with the amount of changes you made, and the result that you saw 
> in your receive noise levels.
>
> You make a good point that I barely gave mention to the ground system on 
> the beacon web page. I will work on adding those details.
>
> To give a simple answer, when I relocated the antenna to it's current 
> position for the 2015/16 season, I drove a ground rod at the base of the 
> antenna. I then plowed in just under the turf about 16 radial wires that 
> run about 35 feet. I ran 4 wires (NSEW) that were over 100 ft. long. All 
> radials are terminated by short 3ft. long ground rods.
>
> In terms of improving the ground system, of course I could plow in more 
> and longer wires. The water table for the farm is only 10 feet or so below 
> the ground surface. I could sink 12-15 ft long ground rods to tap into 
> that water layer. It would remain wet all the time.
>
> 73   de   N8OOU - Mike Meek
>
> On 01/13/2017 04:23 PM, Michael Sapp wrote:
>> Mike: Can you tell us about the nature of the ground system used on WM?
>> I checked your web site but I did not notice any information about the
>> grounding method used.
>>