"ku4yp" wrote
in reference to station grounding, i have read keep
the grounding strap as short as possible and not a multiple
of a resonant length on the ham bands. (etc)
__________________

Unless your antenna requires an earth ground as an integral part of its
design, the length or number of ham band wavelengths, or even the existence
of a metallic path to earth is irrelevant to the radiation characteristics
of the antenna itself.

Still, a good earth ground and other means are desirable to protect your
equipment from lightning transients, as developed by Jack Painter on his
informative website link earlier in this thread.

Here is a re-post of some earlier text I posted about the need for an
"antenna ground."

GW asked (clip):
How do you determine the quality of an antenna ground at HF
on an absolute basis? Not how well have I maximized what
Mother Nature gave me at my QTH by adding radials, but
how good is my ground compared to other stations' grounds
at other locations?

A low-resistance ground connection for a transmit antenna is important to
the received signal level only when the antenna design requires it as a
reference for its driven element, such as with the vertical radiators used
in MW broadcasting.

Most HF/VHF/UHF transmit antennas do not need, or use an earth ground
for efficient radiation. As practical proof of this, recall that airborne
antennas have no connection at all to earth ground, but still work just
fine.
And the transmit antennas used in commercial FM & TV broadcast are
installed at the top of a tall tower, many wavelengths (and ohms) above
earth potential. The tower is grounded for safety reasons, but the
radiation patterns and received signal levels from those antennas would be
the same even if that tower was not grounded.

RF

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