"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.

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

"Fred Roberts" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 14 Feb 2014 16:02:40 -0000, "gareth"
wrote:

It really is not rocket science.

Especially for a seasoned LW tamer.

LW? Que?

"Fred Roberts" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 15 Feb 2014 23:12:46 -0000, "gareth"
wrote:

Especially for a seasoned LW tamer.

LW? Que?

Long wire. Gawd he's been banging on about it for weeks now, shirley
you noticed - tales of daring do with a homemade auto ATU interspaced
with yarns about a sporting injury? Did someone mention Walter Mitty?

Of course. For some reason I had taken that to be a reference to a Lyin'
Tamer

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?

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/

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

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 Sunday, February 16, 2014 4:36:32 AM UTC-6, Brian Reay wrote:


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

That makes it harder trying to do all bands.
It's often easier to pick only the bands one uses the most,
and compromise on the others.

In your case, I'd prefer string dipoles up between trees,
but it seems you lack the room for that.

My next choice would be mounting a mobile antenna on top
of the RV. You don't have to drive with it on, but if you
had an antenna mount on the roof to use, it would sure make
it easier to mount an antenna. You wouldn't have to worry
about a counterpoise, etc.. The RV would be it, assuming it
has a metal skin.
But I'd prefer using a normal coil loaded mobile antenna than
the auto tuned whip. I think the larger loading coil would
be more efficient, and better current distribution if center
loaded.

But I suppose you could improve the current distribution of
your 7m whip by adding some type of top hat, or top hat wires
or spokes.

The only drawback to a mobile antenna like say a bug catcher is
you have to be able to adjust the coil tap to change bands.
It may well be too high to reach on top of an RV.

So you'd probably have to yank it off the roof to change bands.
I have this on my mobile antennas, but I use a Hustler quick
disconnect, which makes it fast and easy.
I suppose a screwdriver antenna would be an easy route to
changing bands, but they are heavy and fairly expensive for
anything decent.

Myself, I camp a lot, and my usual setup 98% of the time
are 40 and 80 dipoles strung up in, or between trees.
Sometimes I run the two dipoles with one coax feed, sometimes
I make a single dipole, and use insulators with wire jumpers
to shorten a 80m dipole to 40m. Just depends what I have laying
around and how many trees are involved.
I don't worry about any of the higher bands. I can still use
them to a degree by using a tuner on the dipoles. Or tack on
an extra dipole if really needed. A 40 dipole works 15m as is
pretty well.
But I talk on 80 and 40 most of the time. 40 in the day, 80 at
night. And 160 if I have enough wire in the air.