Tom Donaly wrote:
It probably comes from charged particles and the earth's
electric field, but you won't know anything for sure unless
you can come up with a mechanism for showing how dust particles
get their charge in the first place.

When I was working on repeater systems trying to figure out how to make
an omnidirectional antenna (mounted ABOVE the tower or mounted above
other things on a roof) not get wiped out by p-static I talked to an
person at NASA who delt with problems NASA had.

I've forgotten most of the numbers he quoted for electric field
intensity as height increased and the effects of things that modified
the impedance of that voltage, but I left those conversations and the
experiences with an entirely different view than when I entered.

Moving the antenna just a few feet lower than other objects made a
large difference in p-static, and that was at heights between 200 and
800 feet above ground.

It's a nice guess by Cecil that there is less wind or less particles at
180 feet rather than 200, or 780 feet rather than 800 AGL, but in real
life there probably isn't much difference.


When people spend a few thousand bucks changing to dc grounded
antennas, antennas in radomes (Super Stationmasters) with only a metal
tip exposed, and folded dipoles... only to find the only thing that
helps is making the antenna NOT the tallest or most protruding
point....it's tough to accept something that didn't ever make a
difference.

Of course if I viewed the world through a 80 meter dipole at 50 feet
with only dust to worry about and never talked to the fellow at NASA,
or if I never had multiple antennas on multiple tall towers or worked
on all those commercial systems, I might agree with Cecil.

All the problems I saw related to corona.

73 Tom