[Lowfer] SIW (WM) in CT

[Michael Sapp]

OK Mike, yes, tweak that that Litz Wire tuner for all it's worth and play 
with the ground system as time allows.....good to share some thoughts 
between  us....

73 Mike tts

----- 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: Saturday, January 14, 2017 12:40 AM
Subject: Re: [Lowfer] SIW (WM) in CT


> 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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