Put the tripod on top of the RV and connect the "ground" to the RV top. It
may be not much of a ground on the lower bands, but it should get a signal
out on the higher bands.

Bill
W2WO

"Brian Reay" wrote in message
...

W5DXP wrote:
On Friday, February 14, 2014 4:08:58 AM UTC-6, Brian Reay wrote:
Does anyone have any novel ideas for RF grounds to use with an
RV/Mobilehome.

Why not use the vehicle for the counterpoise like mobile antennas do?
--
73, Cecil, w5dxp.com

Sorry, I should have said, the antenna is not mounted on the vehicle. I use
a small tripod. Running one coax shortish coax with a power lead taped to
it is fine but a long , or several long, counter poises are what concern
me.

73, Brian

On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 10:46:31 -0500, Bill Ogden wrote:

Put the tripod on top of the RV and connect the "ground" to the RV top.
It may be not much of a ground on the lower bands, but it should get a
signal out on the higher bands.

For holiday operating I have a set of quarter wave conterpoises taped
together which I load a vertical against (fibre glass fishing pole with
wire attached). It would be trivial to layout the counterpoise under a
campervan.



Charlie.

--
M0WYM
Sales @ radiowymsey
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Sales-At-Radio-Wymsey/
http://sales-at-radio-wymsey.ebid.net/

Wymsey wrote:
On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 10:46:31 -0500, Bill Ogden wrote:

Put the tripod on top of the RV and connect the "ground" to the RV top.
It may be not much of a ground on the lower bands, but it should get a
signal out on the higher bands.

For holiday operating I have a set of quarter wave conterpoises taped
together which I load a vertical against (fibre glass fishing pole with
wire attached). It would be trivial to layout the counterpoise under a
campervan.


That is pretty well what I do now. I am looking for other, hopefully
better, ideas.

Have you not seen my posts on uk.radio.amateur re using a single counter
poise? Much quicker to deploy and less of a trip hazard.

On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 10:08:58 +0000 (UTC), Brian Reay
wrote:

I'm looking for 'out of the box' ideas, I can fit in a camping 'pitch' and
setup /tear down quickly.

Ok, I won't mention the standard solutions, such as grounding it to
your motor home, elevated ground systems, or giving up on the vertical
(which needs a ground to act as a counterpoise) and installing a
horizontal dipole, which doesn't need the ground.

For out of the box ideas, I suggest you try

1. Attach a ground wire to a tennis ball. Flush the ball down the
toilet and into the sewer hookup. Eventually, it will hit the
campground septic tank, which will make an excellent ground.

2. Find a roll of welded wire fencing. Notice that I said welded,
not galvanized or twisted. Roll out the fence wire onto your campsite
and park you mobile home on top of it. You now have a ground.

3. Dump some water on the ground around the campsite. As long as
it's wet, it will conduct, and you have a ground.

4. Do your camping in a swamp or over quicksand. Just push a ground
rod into the wet ground and you're done. Be sure to equip your mobile
home with pontoons, or you may have that sinking feeling.

5. The problem with using the a mobile home as a ground is the
insulating tires. What you need is a way to connect the aluminum
camper to the ground directly. Most mobile homes have leveling jacks.
Instead of the usual 4 jacks, install several dozen jacks, some of
which have sharp points that push into the ground. That should take
care of the insulating tires.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 09:15:30 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

1. Attach a ground wire to a tennis ball. Flush the ball down the
toilet and into the sewer hookup. Eventually, it will hit the
campground septic tank, which will make an excellent ground.

Ooops. That will only work for a concrete septic tank. If the tank
is insulated fiberglass, there may be problems. Check with the
trailer park as to which type of septic tank they have.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

"Jeff Liebermann" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 09:15:30 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

1. Attach a ground wire to a tennis ball. Flush the ball down the
toilet and into the sewer hookup. Eventually, it will hit the
campground septic tank, which will make an excellent ground.

Ooops. That will only work for a concrete septic tank. If the tank
is insulated fiberglass, there may be problems.

-- Check with the
-- trailer park as to which type of septic tank they have.

They might want to know why he's asking. That'll go as one of the problems.
:-)

On 15/02/2014 00:08, Sal wrote:
"Jeff Liebermann" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 09:15:30 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

1. Attach a ground wire to a tennis ball. Flush the ball down the
toilet and into the sewer hookup. Eventually, it will hit the
campground septic tank, which will make an excellent ground.

Ooops. That will only work for a concrete septic tank. If the tank
is insulated fiberglass, there may be problems.

-- Check with the
-- trailer park as to which type of septic tank they have.

They might want to know why he's asking. That'll go as one of the problems.
:-)


Your campsites sound quite different to ours.

In Europe, while not all sites are the same, relatively few pitches have
the pipe work for toilet or even grey water or fresh water. On a good
site, perhaps 10% will have grey and fresh water facilities at the
pitch. The rest will probably have electricity.

Toilets are in a block. There are facilities to empty 'black' tanks.

A pitch will be, perhaps 7mx7m. People tend to be wary of strange things
like antennas and trailing wires, which people (esp. children) may trip
over are a particular issue. There are already electrical 'hook up'
wires about. The last thing you want while on holiday is to have
contributed to someone being injured.

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 10:08:58 +0000 (UTC), Brian Reay
wrote:

I'm looking for 'out of the box' ideas, I can fit in a camping 'pitch' and
setup /tear down quickly.

Ok, I won't mention the standard solutions, such as grounding it to
your motor home, elevated ground systems, or giving up on the vertical
(which needs a ground to act as a counterpoise) and installing a
horizontal dipole, which doesn't need the ground.

The reason I use a vertical is it avoids the need for supports, European
pitches tend to be small and running a dipole over an adjoining pitch may
be an issue.



For out of the box ideas, I suggest you try

1. Attach a ground wire to a tennis ball. Flush the ball down the
toilet and into the sewer hookup. Eventually, it will hit the
campground septic tank, which will make an excellent ground.


In Europe, the toilets are not on the pitch.

2. Find a roll of welded wire fencing. Notice that I said welded,
not galvanized or twisted. Roll out the fence wire onto your campsite
and park you mobile home on top of it. You now have a ground.

That I like.


3. Dump some water on the ground around the campsite. As long as
it's wet, it will conduct, and you have a ground.


4. Do your camping in a swamp or over quicksand. Just push a ground
rod into the wet ground and you're done. Be sure to equip your mobile
home with pontoons, or you may have that sinking feeling.

Neither will make a huge difference to the RF gnd. properties compared to
'normal' dirt. You need to be in sea water for that and my XYL isn't keen
on boats.

5. The problem with using the a mobile home as a ground is the
insulating tires. What you need is a way to connect the aluminum
camper to the ground directly. Most mobile homes have leveling jacks.
Instead of the usual 4 jacks, install several dozen jacks, some of
which have sharp points that push into the ground. That should take
care of the insulating tires.


The other issue is, with the antenna mounted near the real ground, you will
have a huge lump of grounded metal in the near field. Far from a good idea.


Thank you for the input.

73
Brian
G8OSN/W8OSN
www.g8osn.net

On Friday, February 14, 2014 4:08:58 AM UTC-6, Brian Reay wrote:
Does anyone have any novel ideas for RF grounds to use with an

RV/Mobilehome.



What band or bands are you trying to work?

wrote:
On Friday, February 14, 2014 4:08:58 AM UTC-6, Brian Reay wrote:
Does anyone have any novel ideas for RF grounds to use with an

RV/Mobilehome.



What band or bands are you trying to work?

80m to 10m on this antenna, inc. 60m

I have antennas on the vehicle for VHF/UHF

--
73
Brian
G8OSN/W8OSN
www.g8osn.net