Dear Stefan, LF,

this is a simple question but not easy to answer. I think it depends on 
whereabouts you want to look.

Unlike electric fields, magnetic fields easily penetrates the ground down to a 
skin depth, which can be some tens of meters depending on frequency and soil 
conductivity. So in the immediate vicinity of a small loop antenna, the effect 
of real ground on the field is hardly noticable. Even if you buried it a couple 
of meters, the loop would still radiate (albeit with some extra loss 
resistance).

On the other hand, looking at the farfield, the skin layer will indeed act as a 
reflector. This results from the fact that the surface currents have to cancel 
the loop field deep in the ground. As long as the skindepth is much less than a 
vacuum wavelength, this shielding current contributes just as much to the far 
field as a metal ground plane would do. Thus the radiation resistance, which 
describes the power transfered to the far field, has to include an image loop, 
and it is doubled to
 Rrad = 62.3 kohm * area^2 / lambda^4.

So much for my five cent's worth... I wonder if there are is experimental 
evidence of this factor of two, eg. by direct measurement of radiated field 
strength around a transmit loop antenna.

Best 73,
MArkus (DF6NM)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Stefan Schäfer
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2010 7:54 PM
Subject: Re: LF: ERP calculation (revised)

Hello Markus, Roger, LF,

Am 02.09.2010 19:07, schrieb Markus Vester:
>>Note this is using the radiation resistance for a loop in free space, as the 
>>effect of ground is already included in the earth antenna picture. For an 
>>above-ground loop with a mirror image beneath it, radiation resistance would 
>>be doubled.<<

Can the ground/soil be seen as a mirror for LF? It depends on the conductance 
and Epsilon R of course, but i mean the "normal" conds ;-)

73, cu, Stefan