Hi J.B.,
Here on top of a ridge, I've become quite 'well' acquainted with wells various.
Ask me sometime about the dowser, how accurate he was, and why the well-
driller hates him. And me.
Well heads tend to be less useful as RF or even safety grounds than would be
expected; after all a big chunk of metal in a deep hole sounds ideal, right?
Except for a few things: The steel almost certainly doesn't go all the way down
the well, indeed current practice here (Pennsylvania) is for just the top length (10
- 20' or so) to be steel, the rest plastic, and then only down until the soil/rock is
capable of holding the bore by itself, which often isn't far down at all. Secondly,
steel rapidly acquires a patina of rust, which makes for a lousy metal-to-dirt
electrical interface. Thirdly, if it is an active well (i.e. there's a pump at the
bottom of it) the electrical noise of the pump running, or at the very least ker-
chunking on and off will induce itself into your ground and hence the antenna
system; in the same vein, there will be close coupling between general mains-
borne noise and your ground system, which again the receiver will hear -
especially so if the casing is used as a local safety ground for the pump.
All that said, give it a try. At the very least the run-out to the well-head will make
a good radial/counterpoise. But don't count on the well as the keystone to a
decent RF ground.
Cheers,
Steve
http://www.w3eee.com
07/30/05 22:53:15, "J. B. Weazle McCreath" <[email protected]> wrote:
From: "J. B. Weazle McCreath" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 23:53:15 +0100
Subject:LF: Suitable ground?
Hello LFer's,
The soil at my QTH is composed mostly of gravel, which makes getting a
decent ground for RF purposes rather difficult for two reasons, driving in
ground rods, and
poor soil conductivity. However, about 150 feet from my house is a water
well in
the form of an 8 inch diameter steel pipe that goes down 275 feet! Has
anyone
on the list had any experience using such as a ground for a Marconi
antenna?
Cheers, J.B.
VE3EAR - VE3WZL
EN93dr
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