"Steve" wrote in message
om...
Yes, I should have been clearer about this. At least right now, I'm
only looking to build a receive-only antenna.

As for the antenna ground, I'm still trying to work this out for
myself. I'm not sure a receive-only antenna requires much of a ground
in order to work well. However, with a length of wire on the roof I'll
obviously want a safety ground of some kind. There are a bunch of old
television antennas up there and I want to take a close look at them
to determine how they were grounded. My hope is that this will reveal
a convenient way to ground my antenna.

Thanks,

Steve

Steve, if you affix the rooftop wire antenna to a Balun, which coax will
feed from your shack, a rooftop ground from exposed structural steel of the
building is possible. Inside an apartment, there is no ground available
other than the AC ground, which you may *never* connect an antenna to
directly. Bad enough that it will be indirectly connected via your radio
case, in the event of a lightning strike on the building roof.

So if you live in an area exposed to lightning, disconnecting an apartment
rooftop antenna at the roof is the only 100% safe method. Not that yourself
of hundreds of others might abide by that advice, but it is valid anyway.
You could install a lightning arrestor at the rooftop if you expose a good
ground up there. That would divert most of the energy away from your
feedline from a rooftop strike.

Jack


"Jack Painter" wrote in message
news:Ngq2d.246250$Lj.27515@fed1read03...
"Eric F. Richards" wrote
I.C.E. = Industrial Communication Engineers.

http://personal.isla.net/ice/
1-800-ICE-COMM


More up-to-date-contact info:

http://www.arraysolutions.com/Products/ice/
(972) 203-2008


You want the I.C.E. 180A if your interests are only HF, or the I.C.E.
182A if your interests include MW. Same price.

Concur that ICE equipment, incl that particular device works very well.
Don't forget to mention to folks that it is a *receive-only* device.
Poster
in this thread was not clear what his intentions were, and some of your
comments sounded transmit-oriented (counterpoise, tuner, etc). The
random
wire won't care much what's connected to it downstream besides a
receiver,
if SWL is the focus. But the ICE matchbox does affect bands receivable
by
shifting the impedance matching points. Finding the best fit on one band
is
at the expense of some others, at least that has been my experience.

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach VA