[Lowfer] SIW (WM) in CT

[N8OOU]

Mike - tts,

My ground is basically sand down to the water table, so I think it would 
be fairly easy to connect the garden hose to 1/2 inch ridged copper pipe 
and use the water flow to drill the pipe in. I have never done that, but 
seen others drill water wells using that method on u-tube.

Brute force sledge hammering is always an option.

I am working on loading coil changes first though, with this idea on the 
back burner.

73   de   N8OOU - Mike Meek

On 01/13/2017 08:45 PM, Michael Sapp wrote:
> 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.
>>>
>
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