On 3-Aug-2009, John Ferrell wrote:

I have about a 50 foot run from my radio to the outside ground rod. What's the minimum gauge
wire
that is acceptable for this connection?
The last time I checked the minimum wire size for a ground intended to
protect from lightning is #6.

50 feet of any wire will not work as an RF ground for anything other
than a quarter wave at 50 feet!

OK. Would it work to construct a radial counterpoise in the crawl space under my office? It would
only be about a 5 foot run to the center of the counterpoise.

If I lay wires on the dirt floor of the crawl space, how many radials would be required and what
would the length be to handle 6-40 meters?