Jim Kelley wrote:


Hi Cecil -
Just a small bit of elaboration on your point - the arc is the result of
the accumulation of a sufficient amount of charge to facilitate an
electrical discharge in air. Static is heard in the receiver as the
charge is being acquired,

Hi Jim,

Can you elaborate further on your understanding of just how an
ungrounded antenna wire that receives an increment of charge causes a
response in the receiver as the charge is being acquired?

If dust particles are charged as raindrops are (mixed polarity and
magnitude) a typical incremental charge is on the order of 8
picocoulomb. Do we have an understanding of how much power would be
transmitted to the 50 ohm input impedance of the receiver by such an
incremental charge and the mechanism by which that transmission takes
place? Based on anecdotal info, it is not unusual for these impulses to
appear at an average level of several S-units.

Thanks for any insights you can share.

Chuck, NT3G

but an AGC limited pop would be heard when an
arc occurs. (And sometimes nothing at all after the latter :-)

Putting up a 40m folded dipole caused
the arcing to cease.

That's right. The accumulated electrostatic charge would be distributed
uniformly along the length of such an antenna. Both ends of the antenna
would therefore be at the same potential, so there is no propensity to
arc across them. If at least one of the antenna terminals on the rig is
grounded, the likelihood that the antenna will accumulate a significant
amount of charge is greatly reduced. The antenna is still just as
likely to produce precipitation static noise however. If the receiver
input was strictly differential, then it would indeed be completely
insensitive to common mode signals and noise.

73, ac6xg


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