Reg Edwards wrote:
Some years back I buried a 30 metre (60-feet) auminium wire one spade
depth in my back garden. Wire was 1.5 mm in diameter. Soil
resistivity about 100 ohm-metres. To scientists that's 10
milli-Siemens. The near end of the wire came up in the shack. That's
under my kitchen sink. It's still there. Open-circuit at the far end.

As a counterpoise, something essential to tune it against, I erected a
wire in the form of an inverted-L. This was about 30 feet high and
overall length about 140 feet. I chose this length because it fitted
nicely into my back garden. The front garden is too short even for an
underground antenna.

On the 160m band I fed into it about 30 watts from a home-brew
transceiver so I can't provide for the record a manufacturer's type
and serial number. However I still have the transceiver which can be
inspected.

Despite a high local noise level of S-6 I was able to communicate up
to 60 miles with mobile stations in broad daylight on SSB. After
sunset I could easily communicate with most of Europe on CW.

I think a record of these buried antenna experiments should be kept
for posterity, alongside the famous biblical work of B,L & E.

By the way, as you see, I did remember to measure soil resistivity. It
was the first thing I did. What buried wire do you think I used to
measure it?
----
Reg, G4FGQ

Hi Reg, Interesting, but isn't a 30 metre wire more like 100 feet
instead of 60 feet? According to the conversions on your programs it
is. Did you ever try burying your counterpoise and elevating the
buried aluminum wire to see how the results compare?
Gary N4AST