"Richard Clark" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 12 Nov 2006 15:14:49 -0000, "Dave" wrote:

but rf doesn't flow 'into the earth'.

Hi Dave,

That statement is contradiction to the following:

'ground radials' ... are ... 'sucking' rf out of the ground.

It necessarily follows that RF does flow "into" the earth by your own
admission of it coming out (by whatever means).

in context of the message i was replying to the writer implied that rf
flowed 'into' the earth and that was the end of it, more correctly it could
be said that rf flows 'through' the earth, but it doesn't dissappear 'into'
the earth.


the 'ground' connection
to a radio feeding a dipole is actually returning current from the ground
back to the feedpoint via the outside of the coax shield...

Very true. However, the ellipsis (...) elongates a 25 word statement
into an 118 word run-on sentence:

i have been told before that i have very long trains of thought, usually i
am just trying to be descriptive enough for someone else to follow along...
and i just like ellipsis.


that is why you
can get high voltages at the radio end of the cable, if too much current
is
coupled from the antenna onto other conductors connected to 'ground' they
will feed current back through the radio 'ground' and out the shield of
the
feedline to get to the feedpoint, and if you happen to be too close to the
antenna or some other object that couples the rf to you then you get
burned
when the rf from you flows back to the radio when you touch something that
is 'grounded'.

If I try to parse the intent of this, it becomes a string of
assertions held in suspension until the summary that ties them
together. That never happens. The conclusion:
then you get burned
when the rf from you flows back to the radio when you touch something that
is 'grounded'.
bears no relation to the matter of currents in the earth - except as a
consequence to rather perverse conditions.

it relates to the common assumption that the radio case, coax shield, and
other items connected to a common 'ground' are at 'rf ground'. ignoring the
'earth', there is also the common misconception that things tied together to
the often discussed 'single point ground' are all 'grounded'... something
that is not necesssarily true when dealing with rf.