From: John Bruce McCreath <weazle@hurontel.on.ca>
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:41:04 -0400
Message-Id: <85C03909-3D1E-4833-875C-87826B07D21B@hurontel.on.ca>
To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
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Subject: LF: 8.97 kHz. antenna idea
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Reply-To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org



Hello LFers,

First I'd like to congratulate those who have made the effort to explore=
 this new and very challenging frequency!
As Stefan and others have mentioned, an "earth loop" over poor ground is=
 something that most of us could put
together and try.

I'd like to make a serious suggestion of using two trees that are a distan=
ce apart as the "earth electrodes" for an
antenna of this sort.  Think about it...the root system of a tree has a mu=
ch more intimate connection to the soil
around it than does just an earth rod.  I'm currently using three conifers=
 as the antenna ground for my 1200 foot
Beverage antenna, and believe me, it does work.  It was much easier than=
 driving in ground rods during the
long and cold Canadian winter which freezes the ground down to about four=
 feet.

The connection was made right at ground level by driving a stainless steel=
 wood screw into the tree trunk and
attaching the wire by sandwiching it between two washers under the screw=
 head.  The screw doesn't need to
be very long, as the most conductive part of the tree is directly under th=
e bark.  As mentioned, I use conifer
trees since that's all I have (2000-3000 of them), but I expect that decid=
uous would work as well.

There are several good write-ups on the web dealing with using trees as gr=
ounds and antennas  A Google
search will turn up lots of reading on the subject. =20

73, J.B., VE3EAR

LowFER Beacon "EAR"
188.830 kHz. QRSS30