RadioBanter

RadioBanter (https://www.radiobanter.com/)
-   Antenna (https://www.radiobanter.com/antenna/)
-   -   Antenna Ground (https://www.radiobanter.com/antenna/2282-re-antenna-ground.html)

GW September 2nd 04 04:53 AM

Antenna Ground
 
I have a question similar to but different from the one posted a few lines
below. How do you determine the quality of an antenna ground at HF on an
absolute basis? Not how well have I maximized what Mother Nature gave me at
my QTH by adding radials, but how good is my ground compared to other
stations' grounds at other locations? I have read about the advantages of
seawater, ground conductivity etc as guidelines, but how is overall ground
quality (not just soil resistivity) determined objectively if indeed that is
possible at all?

George K6GW




Richard Clark September 2nd 04 07:37 AM

On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 03:53:46 GMT, "GW"
wrote:

I have a question similar to but different from the one posted a few lines
below. How do you determine the quality of an antenna ground at HF on an
absolute basis? Not how well have I maximized what Mother Nature gave me at
my QTH by adding radials, but how good is my ground compared to other
stations' grounds at other locations? I have read about the advantages of
seawater, ground conductivity etc as guidelines, but how is overall ground
quality (not just soil resistivity) determined objectively if indeed that is
possible at all?


Hi George,

You compare a measured value with the theoretical, the difference is
loss. Less loss = better (objective goal expressed subjectively).

To state the objective goal objectively, you describe the difference
in dB. However, this quickly devolves to a subjective test, because
only your contact can appreciate the difference, and too often the
difference is less than many other factors of variability (like
fading).

So, let's put this in objective terms. With a dozen radials down, you
could double or quadruple that to achieve 2dB more power out. 2dB on
the conventional S-Meter may barely register more than a needle's
width change while your signal is otherwise dropping and rising 10dB
through a QSO. Go the limit (theoretical of course) of 120 radials
and you perhaps achieve 3 to 4 dB or two needle's widths.

Another objective test is to measure the resistance and compare it to
theoretical. However, take care to observe that theory covers a lot
of ground (no pun) principally depending upon the thickness of the
radiator. To take a useful and common indicator, that value would be
36 Ohms. If you measured 50 Ohms, the excess 14 Ohms could be thought
to be residing in poor connections and the loss of ground. You would
then tighten connections and add radials to shield against ground
loss. Hence by these actions, resistance would lower, and oddly (that
is, in contradiction to misguided expectations) SWR would rise. It is
unlikely you will add enough radials to achieve theoretical, but close
enough counts in RF, hand grenades, and H-Bombs.

It is called the law of diminishing returns (a business concept) where
the more you put into the ground is not matched in continued, improved
performance. It is the first few that count the most.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Richard Fry September 2nd 04 12:46 PM

GW asked (clip):
How do you determine the quality of an antenna ground at HF
on an absolute basis? Not how well have I maximized what
Mother Nature gave me at my QTH by adding radials, but
how good is my ground compared to other stations' grounds
at other locations?

______________

A low-resistance ground connection for a transmit antenna is important to
the received signal level only when the antenna design requires it as a
reference for its driven element, such as with the vertical radiators used
in MW broadcasting.

Most HF/VHF/UHF transmit antennas do not need, or use an earth ground for
efficient radiation. As practical proof of this, recall that airborne
antennas have no connection at all to earth ground, but still work just
fine. And the transmit antennas used in commercial FM & TV broadcast are
installed at the top of a tall tower, many wavelengths (and ohms) above
earth potential. The tower is grounded for safety reasons, but the
radiation patterns and received signal levels from those antennas would be
the same even if that tower was not grounded.

RF

Visit http://rfry.org for FM broadcast RF system papers.



Reg Edwards September 2nd 04 03:27 PM


"GW" wrote
I have a question similar to but different from the one posted a few lines
below. How do you determine the quality of an antenna ground at HF on an
absolute basis? Not how well have I maximized what Mother Nature gave me

at
my QTH by adding radials, but how good is my ground compared to other
stations' grounds at other locations? I have read about the advantages of
seawater, ground conductivity etc as guidelines, but how is overall ground
quality (not just soil resistivity) determined objectively if indeed that

is
possible at all?

================================

The performance of a ground electrode system cannot be separated from that
of an associated antenna. But at least the antenna can be standardised by
assuming it to be a simple vertical of given height. And we won't go far
wrong by assuming the antenna efficiency to be 100 percent.

Engineering Quality is a numerical measure of how well something serves its
intended purpose.

Since the purpose of a ground + antenna system is to radiate em waves the
only possible numerical measure of Quality is radiating power efficiency
measured as a percentage.

With beautiful and fortunate simplicity, the radiating efficiency of such a
system is given by -

Eff = Rrad / ( Rrad + Rloss ) times 100%.

where Rrad is the antenna's radiation resistance looking into the base of
the antenna, and Rloss is the resistance looking into the focal point of the
ground electrode system, immediately under the antenna, such as a set of
radial wires. Or it may be a single rod.

It is impossible to separately measure Rrad and Rloss. But Rrad can be
calculated from the antenna's height and diameter and the two can be
measured together. From the combined single measurement the efficiency can
easily be calculated.

And that's where we part company with simplicity.

To calculate your "Quality on an absolute basis" of just the single ground
rod involves a list of numerical variables as long as your arm. To calculate
Quality of a system of radials imposes an impossible, intractible problem in
statistics.

To compare one system with another would involve everybody with several
lifetimes of fundamental research, measurement and guesswork which would get
nobody anywhere.

However, because radio is by far the most inexact of all the engineering
sciences, it doesn't matter a toss. All measurements are subject to error.
In most of which even the standard deviations can only be guessed at. When
will the next flare occur on our unstable Sun?

Radio engineers are quite accustomed to allowing safety margins of plus or
minus 15 or 20 dB along propagation paths. Even then distortion and error
rates are quoted. Brute force and ignorance and a lot of luck prevail.

So it doesn't matter whether or not Rloss lies between 1 and 10 ohms when
used with your top-band inverted-L and you havn't the foggiest idea what the
soil resistivity is in YOUR back yard.

Incidentally, ground loss is not only smaller in sea water, it is also
smaller with soil resistivities of several thousand ohms and greater.
There's a maximum somewhere in between.

To crudely estimate ground loss, download program RADIALS2 from website
below. It's all crammed into only 70 kilo-bytes. Nobody has yet complained
it gives the wrong answers.
--
.................................................. ..........
Regards from Reg, G4FGQ
For Free Radio Design Software go to
http://www.btinternet.com/~g4fgq.regp
.................................................. ..........



Richard Clark September 2nd 04 05:24 PM

On Thu, 2 Sep 2004 14:27:37 +0000 (UTC), "Reg Edwards"
wrote:

Incidentally, ground loss is not only smaller in sea water, it is also
smaller with soil resistivities of several thousand ohms and greater.
There's a maximum somewhere in between.


Hi George,

The statement above falls into the category of "Old Wives' Tales."
Given the choice for conductors, Sea Water ranks 6 or 7 orders of
magnitude in worse conductivity than any metal (or even carbon) you
would care to pick. By this logic, you should do everything in your
power to operate in an open pit coal mine. ;-)

We won't go into the egregious error of soil resistivity for the same
reasons of senior matriarchal fabrications.

The "legendary" characteristic of Sea Water is found in its far field
reflective characteristic which is remarkable, due largely to its huge
SWR to fields (the same SWR that would occur with the supposed several
thousand ohms of soil). That small boats use a patch on the bottom of
the keel to offer a counterpoise to RF simply exhibits how little
ground development is necessary when the huge asset of reflectivity
dominates this large loss of a poor ground connection (you should also
note the ironic application of "ground" in this regard).

To crudely estimate ground loss, download program RADIALS2 from website
below. It's all crammed into only 70 kilo-bytes. Nobody has yet complained
it gives the wrong answers.


For that matter, no one has even offered it works! Principally
because it places the onus on you proving one of two things:
1. it does work;
2. it does not work.
How can you tell? ;-)

You would stand a better chance with such forecasts using the old
Magic 8-Ball which would at least offer the occasional honest answer
like "Can't answer right now, try again."

Punchinello,

So, old man, tell us when you are going to offer any substantive
method that gives numbers to these illusions of ground you offer? The
soil of your back garden, much less Britain hardly are representative
of a much greater continental expanses beyond that little island you
occupy. The examples of your erroneous generalizations against
reality would be instructive if you simply expanded (embarrassingly
perhaps) on your kitchen calculations of mud calibration. After all,
its been simply YEARS since you offered such suggestions to no obvious
Kelvinian payoff.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Richard Fry September 2nd 04 05:46 PM

"Richard Clark" wrote (clip):
The "legendary" characteristic of Sea Water is found in its far field
reflective characteristic which is remarkable, due largely to its huge
SWR to fields (the same SWR that would occur with the supposed several
thousand ohms of soil).

____________

How does the statement above reconcile with the fact that groundwave daytime
signal strength is far better over a sea water path than any ground path?
There is (essentially) no returning skywave signal to reflect during
daylight hours.

Observe the daytime field strength contours shown on the link below for WABC
radio, for example.

http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin...atus=L&hours=D

RF



Richard Clark September 2nd 04 05:57 PM

On Thu, 2 Sep 2004 11:46:00 -0500, "Richard Fry"
wrote:

"Richard Clark" wrote (clip):
The "legendary" characteristic of Sea Water is found in its far field
reflective characteristic which is remarkable, due largely to its huge
SWR to fields (the same SWR that would occur with the supposed several
thousand ohms of soil).

____________

How does the statement above reconcile with the fact that groundwave daytime
signal strength is far better over a sea water path than any ground path?


Hi OM,

Perhaps you should attend the quote above again. For instance, how is
it that statements in agreement require "reconciliation?"

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Richard Fry September 2nd 04 07:36 PM

"Richard Clark" wrote (clip posted by R. Fry):
The "legendary" characteristic of Sea Water is found in its far field
reflective characteristic which is remarkable, due largely to its huge
SWR to fields (the same SWR that would occur with the supposed several
thousand ohms of soil).

____________

How does the statement above reconcile with the fact that groundwave

daytime
signal strength is far better over a sea water path than any ground path?

R. Fry.

Hi OM,

Perhaps you should attend the quote above again. For instance, how is
it that statements in agreement require "reconciliation?"

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC


So you are saying that sea water paths provide far better groundwave
propagation than overland paths because sea water a such a good reflector?

RF



Richard Harrison September 2nd 04 09:10 PM

Richard Clark wrote:
"The legendary characteristic of Sea Water is found in its far field
reflective characteristic which is remarkable due largely to its huge
SWR to fields---."

Yes, a wave striking the sea finds a high reflection coefficient and
ground waves do well too.

I am looking at a broadcast allocation book prepared by Cleveland
Institute of Radio Electronics in 1959. Many changes in stations and
coverage since then, but the book contains an estimated ground
conductivity map for the U.S.A. which probably has changed very little
since then.

Coastal Texas is almost as good as it gets when it comes to soil on the
map, 30 millimhos per meter. Seawater is not shown on the map but its
conductivity is given as 5,000 millimhos per meter or 167 times as good
as the best soil. Around New York City, conductivity is shown between
0.5 and 4 millimhos. Surface irregularities caused by structures make
additional attenuation.

The conductivities shown on the map are probably good averages as the
preparers had the propagation data of thousands of broadcast stations
which proved their performance to the FCC to work with.

Terman has a ground constant table on page 808 of his 1955 of his 1955
edition. Sea water is given a conductivity of 45,000 micromhos per cm,
or 45 millimhos per cm.

John Cunningham says in "The Complete Broadcast Antenna Handbook: on
page 309 that:
"The conductivity of the earth ranges from about 2 millimhos per meter
for dry sandy locations to as high as 5 mhos/m for sea water."

I think the figures given above are in reasonable agreement. I haven`t
researched the conductivity of carbon, but it is reasonably high being
used for motor brushes, battery electrodes, and vacuum tube plates.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI


Richard Fry September 2nd 04 09:55 PM

"Richard Harrison" wrote (clip):
I am looking at a broadcast allocation book prepared
by Cleveland Institute of Radio Electronics in 1959.
Many changes in stations and coverage since then,
but the book contains an estimated ground conductivity
map for the U.S.A. which probably has changed very little
since then.

________________

The FCC's version of the US ground conductivity map is available on line at
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/m3/

RF



Richard Clark September 2nd 04 10:00 PM

On Thu, 2 Sep 2004 13:36:14 -0500, "Richard Fry"
wrote:

So you are saying that sea water paths provide far better groundwave
propagation than overland paths because sea water a such a good reflector?

RF


Hi OM,

What is the contention that is your point?

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Richard Fry September 2nd 04 10:07 PM

"Richard Clark" wrote message
...
On Thu, 2 Sep 2004 13:36:14 -0500, "Richard Fry"
wrote:

So you are saying that sea water paths provide far better groundwave
propagation than overland paths because sea water a such a good

reflector?

RF


Hi OM,

What is the contention that is your point?

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QH


__________________

That it isn't the reflective nature of sea water that is responsible for its
good propagation of groundwave signals. That is due to its conductivity.

RF



Richard Clark September 2nd 04 10:43 PM

On Thu, 2 Sep 2004 15:10:33 -0500, (Richard
Harrison) wrote:
Coastal Texas is almost as good as it gets when it comes to soil on the
map, 30 millimhos per meter. Seawater is not shown on the map but its
conductivity is given as 5,000 millimhos per meter or 167 times as good
as the best soil.


Hi Richard,

If all would review the standard FCC groundwave propagation curves,
they would notice that they offer low AM Band signal strengths in
terms of "conductivity" and that the differences in strength for the
5,000 millimhos per meter and that of 40 millimhos per meter (125 fold
difference) DO NOT achieve the same proportional difference in
received signal strength. In fact, the difference is so narrow you
could shave with a razor as sharp as it. Even at the high end of the
band the difference has to be out 700 miles to show the "conductive"
ratio. Of course, over that range of transmission ONLY Sea Water
would support that forecast as continental soil varies vastly in
smaller spans - hence the reputation of the Sea.

John Cunningham says in "The Complete Broadcast Antenna Handbook: on
page 309 that:
"The conductivity of the earth ranges from about 2 millimhos per meter
for dry sandy locations to as high as 5 mhos/m for sea water."


This is the conundrum of conductivity of earth: that there is so much
contradiction. You cite coastal Texas, but in distinct contradiction
to the dry sandy locations forecasts, pan handle Texas also exhibits
just as high conductivities for less water as Corpus Christi which
oddly enough easily has twice the sand content as those arid
wastelands.

There are a lot of reductionist statements about ground that simply
don't exhibit against the claims made for it. Reggie has long claimed
to be an authority on the subject, and when push comes to shove for my
hints that he offer Kelvinian substance, he complains about the CIA or
his insufficient understanding of English. The urchins of Rio would
guffaw at that one. I will anticipate Punchinello's Magic 8-Ball
answer "try again later," as I am sure the software could do no
better. ;-)

And by the way, the kitchen calibration of mud is a common gardener's
exercise, why Punchinello cannot or does not recite it is evidence
that no one really cares to ask (me or him). His embarrassment would
be found in its lack of correlation to RF (there are far more
variables to consider).

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Richard Clark September 2nd 04 10:44 PM

On Thu, 2 Sep 2004 16:07:29 -0500, "Richard Fry"
wrote:
That it isn't the reflective nature of sea water that is responsible for its
good propagation of groundwave signals. That is due to its conductivity.


Hi OM,

Then the response is quite simple: you are wrong.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Richard Fry September 2nd 04 11:17 PM

"Richard Clark" wrote
If all would review the standard FCC groundwave propagation curves,
they would notice that they offer low AM Band signal strengths in
terms of "conductivity" and that the differences in strength for the
5,000 millimhos per meter and that of 40 millimhos per meter (125 fold
difference) DO NOT achieve the same proportional difference in
received signal strength. In fact, the difference is so narrow you
could shave with a razor as sharp as it. Even at the high end of the
band the difference has to be out 700 miles to show the "conductive"
ratio. Of course, over that range of transmission ONLY Sea Water
would support that forecast as continental soil varies vastly in
smaller spans - hence the reputation of the Sea.

_______________

For a reality check, here are the approx distances to the 1 mV/m contour for
1kW of radiated power from a 90 degree vertical with a good radial ground
system. The values were determined from the FCC's standard curves.

Freq Conductivity/Miles

540 kHz 8/66, 40/124, 5,000/140
1,600 kHz 8/22, 40/56, 5,000/126

The average ground conductivity in the U.S. is fairly low, probably
somewhere between 8 and 16 mS/m. The difference in ground wave propagation
over such paths is dramatically poorer than over sea water.

It is also clear from the above values how much better the low freq MW
broadcast channels perform.

RF



Richard Fry September 2nd 04 11:20 PM

"Richard Clark" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 2 Sep 2004 16:07:29 -0500, "Richard Fry"
wrote:
That it isn't the reflective nature of sea water that is responsible for

its
good propagation of groundwave signals. That is due to its conductivity.


Hi OM,

Then the response is quite simple: you are wrong.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

__________

Believe as you wish, but you won't have much company...



Richard Clark September 3rd 04 12:38 AM

On Thu, 2 Sep 2004 17:17:00 -0500, "Richard Fry"
wrote:
It is also clear from the above values how much better the low freq MW
broadcast channels perform.


Hi OM,

You have a remarkable capacity to find controversy where there is
none.

Again, what is the contention that is your point?

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Richard Clark September 3rd 04 12:41 AM

On Thu, 2 Sep 2004 17:20:32 -0500, "Richard Fry"
wrote:
Believe as you wish, but you won't have much company...


Hi OM,

Your reaction is the shock of a belief being challenged. ;-)

As for having company? I am not under the illusion that science is a
democracy, much less a madison avenue concept.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Roy Lewallen September 3rd 04 01:24 AM

Richard Clark wrote:
On Thu, 2 Sep 2004 14:27:37 +0000 (UTC), "Reg Edwards"
wrote:


Incidentally, ground loss is not only smaller in sea water, it is also
smaller with soil resistivities of several thousand ohms and greater.
There's a maximum somewhere in between.



Hi George,

The statement above falls into the category of "Old Wives' Tales."
Given the choice for conductors, Sea Water ranks 6 or 7 orders of
magnitude in worse conductivity than any metal (or even carbon) you
would care to pick. By this logic, you should do everything in your
power to operate in an open pit coal mine. ;-)
. . .


It's not an "old wives' tale" at all.

We have to remember that there are two loss mechanisms involved with
antennas. One is the resistance encountered by ground current flowing to
one of the feedline terminals in a ground-mounted antenna. This can be
reduced to an arbitrarily small value by installing radials. The other
is loss incurred when the field strikes the ground and reflects. This
second loss is generally negligible for horizontally polarized antennas
except at high radiation angles, but is very significant for verticals
at low angles. This loss occurs mainly beyond the far edge of most
radial fields, so there's usually nothing you can do to reduce the
reflection loss except to move the antenna.

Perfectly conducting ground has no loss, and perfectly insulating ground
has no loss. When considering ground system loss (resistance encountered
by local ground currents), the loss is maximum somewhere in between.
Doing some experimental modeling with EZNEC/4 (NEC-4 based), I've found
that the maximum loss for a radial ground system in the HF range
unfortunately hits somewhere around average soil conductivity. It's not
an abrupt maximum -- the loss varies fairly gently with conductivity.

Reflection loss has to be considered a little differently. While the
same statement about perfectly conducting and perfectly insulating
ground is still true, if you had perfectly insulating ground, radiated
power would be lost to useful radiation by penetrating the ground,
whether or not it got dissipated as heat. (In reality, it would of
course eventually get dissipated, since no ground is perfectly
insulating.) Looking just at the amount of radiation that ends up above
the horizon, and neglecting conductive ground current loss, the
reflection "loss" does indeed seem to increase monotonically as the
ground conductivity decreases.

The ground reflection loss can easily be evaluated with any version of
EZNEC, including the demo. Choose a vertical antenna such as example
file Vert1.ez, set the ground type to Real/MININEC, wire loss to zero,
and the plot type to 3D. There should be no resistive loads in the
model. Then look at the Average Gain shown at the bottom of the main
window after doing a plot calculation. The deviation from a value of 1
(0 dB) represents the fraction of the applied power that's lost in the
ground reflection.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Richard Fry September 4th 04 12:42 PM

"Richard Clark" wrote
"Richard Fry" wrote:
It is also clear from the above values how much better the
low freq MW broadcast channels perform.


Hi OM,

You have a remarkable capacity to find controversy where there is
none.

Again, what is the contention that is your point?

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

_______________

You quote only a part of my post with which you happen to agree, and then
say I find controversy when there is none.

The point of my last post on this subject, and our real controversy here
relates to which characteristic of sea water is responsible for its lower
groundwave path loss, as developed in the thread. You wrote that the reason
is because sea water is a good reflector. I wrote that it is because of its
good conductivity. This difference in our positions should be evident by
reading the thread.

RF



Just a suggestion... September 4th 04 01:39 PM

**** Post for FREE via your newsreader at post.usenet.com ****

"Richard Fry" and "Richard Clark" argue about:
...which characteristic of sea water is responsible
for its lower groundwave path loss...
...because sea water is a good reflector.
...because of its good conductivity.


Is sea water a good reflector because it has good conductivity ?

;-)




-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
*** Usenet.com - The #1 Usenet Newsgroup Service on The Planet! ***
http://www.usenet.com
Unlimited Download - 19 Seperate Servers - 90,000 groups - Uncensored
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Richard Clark September 4th 04 05:46 PM

On Sat, 4 Sep 2004 06:42:45 -0500, "Richard Fry"
wrote:
You quote only a part of my post


Hi OM,

I don't quote the full message because it is already available, and
further, it is bad manners to do so unless something new and relevant
has been offered. None so appears.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Richard Clark September 4th 04 06:04 PM

On Sat, 4 Sep 2004 09:39:56 -0300, "Just a suggestion..."
wrote:

Is sea water a good reflector because it has good conductivity ?


If you think it has good conductivity, do you wire your house with it?
Do you have a radial field using #38 wire in a one meter grid? Both
laughable propositions here, but those tears of mirth turn to the
dewey eyed mist of religious belief when Salt Water "conductivity" is
mentioned.

Sand is the least lossy ground beneath your feet, but how well does it
contribute to DX? Add some water and the loss skyrockets - and this
is called the boon of conductivity!

No, it is called the boon of reflectivity. The Z changed and power
CANNOT penetrate the interface. If you cannot get power into it,
there is nothing to conduct (and it is the molecular polarization and
relaxation moment that causes this, not conductivity).

The legends of mature spinsters are many with respect to the qualities
of ground - they even inspire useless software as crutches. I have
seen NO ONE here who can recommend it (much less admit they don't even
have a clue on what values would be appropriate for their own locale).
Hence most discussion is either faith-driven, speculation, or simple
hucksterism.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Richard Fry September 4th 04 06:11 PM

"Richard Clark" wrote
Richard Fry wrote:
You quote only a part of my post


it is bad manners to do so unless something new
and relevant has been offered. None so appears.

_________

I doubt that the majority of readers will agree with you about the relevancy
of my posts on this thread to yours. You have simply chosen not to address
them.

But in any case...Pax vobiscum.

RF



GW September 4th 04 08:55 PM

Sand is the least lossy ground beneath your feet, but how well does it
contribute to DX? Add some water and the loss skyrockets - and this
is called the boon of conductivity!

No, it is called the boon of reflectivity. The Z changed and power
CANNOT penetrate the interface. If you cannot get power into it,
there is nothing to conduct (and it is the molecular polarization and
relaxation moment that causes this, not conductivity).



It's been many years since my EM theory days in school, but I seem to
remember being taught that the way surfaces reflect EM waves is by being
excited by the impinging wave and then re-radiating due to the current flow
caused by the arriving wave. This would require the surface to be a good
conductor to be a good reflector.



Richard Fry September 4th 04 09:12 PM

"Richard Clark" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 4 Sep 2004 06:42:45 -0500, "Richard Fry"
wrote:
You quote only a part of my post


I don't quote the full message because it is already available, and
further, it is bad manners to do so unless something new and relevant
has been offered.


(Three hours later)

"Richard Clark" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 4 Sep 2004 09:39:56 -0300, "Just a suggestion..."
wrote:

Is sea water a good reflector because it has good conductivity ?

(clippage)
The legends of mature spinsters are many with respect to the qualities
of ground - they even inspire useless software as crutches. I have
seen NO ONE here who can recommend it (much less admit they don't even
have a clue on what values would be appropriate for their own locale).
Hence most discussion is either faith-driven, speculation, or simple
hucksterism.

_________________

Good Sir,

A bit of a disconnect appears to occur in the above two clips between your
stated desire to avoid bad manners, and the consistency with which you do
it. Most people are more willing to entertain another's point of view if
such is given without hostility and intimidation.

With all due respect,

RF



Richard Clark September 4th 04 10:58 PM

On Sat, 04 Sep 2004 19:55:48 GMT, "GW"
wrote:

This would require the surface to be a good
conductor to be a good reflector.


Hi OM,

Replace any low Ohm plane with a hi Ohm plane. No conduction issues
(or even vastly worse than salt water) there at all, same reflection -
n'est pas?

For those who've studied freshman Physics, this is called Snell's Law.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Reg Edwards September 4th 04 11:56 PM

You all seem to have forgotten the very high permittivity of water. Does
this not affect reflectivity? A question for Cecil?



Richard Clark September 5th 04 12:33 AM

On Sat, 04 Sep 2004 17:04:49 GMT, Richard Clark wrote:

(and it is the molecular polarization and
relaxation moment that causes this, not conductivity)

On Sat, 4 Sep 2004 22:56:12 +0000 (UTC), "Reg Edwards"
wrote:

You all seem to have forgotten the very high permittivity of water. Does
this not affect reflectivity? A question for Cecil?


Ah Punchinello!

Clowning as ever, I see. A seque from the world's worst conductor to
the world's worst dielectric? This is the price of superlatives in
place of engineering specifics. Whatsamatta, did you defrock your
saint Kelvin?

What is the loss tangent of the mud in your garden Reggie? ;-)

Well, anticipating your typical loss for a response, and for others, a
nice round value of 1 is easily within rough accuracy. Corrections
(not speculations) are encouraged. Be specific.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Reg Edwards September 5th 04 04:04 AM

Maximum ground loss during wave reflection, between low resistance sea water
and very high soil resistivities, could very well be when soil impedance is
of the order of 377 ohms. Or is related to that number.

This is because, on the average of incidence angles, soil is more likely to
absorb than reflect wave energy received from free-space. There's a better
impedance match with free space at 377 ohms. The reflection coefficient is
smaller.

Soil permittivity and frequency will also have an effect on the ballpark in
which maximum absorption and hence maximum transmission loss lies.
---
Reg, G4FGQ



Richard Clark September 5th 04 05:16 AM

On Sun, 5 Sep 2004 03:04:23 +0000 (UTC), "Reg Edwards"
wrote:

when soil impedance is
of the order of 377 ohms.


Hi Reggie,

Is THIS the soil in your garden? Must be miserable for DX! That
would be an exceedingly deep pile of very dry sand you are on. Quite
remarkable stuff where ever you might find it. Like the green cheese
the moon was supposedly made of, you have more lore from the aged
domestic goddess file than one could have imagined.

What coefficients would that be for your program? What would the
conductance be? How many radials would it resolve to? Can you even
guess the Q? So many questions and easily suitable for the Magic
8-ball "Try again later."

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Me again... September 5th 04 01:06 PM

**** Post for FREE via your newsreader at post.usenet.com ****

"Reg Edwards"
Maximum ground loss during wave reflection, ...
... could very well be when soil impedance is
of the order of 377 ohms. ...
...impedance match with free space at 377 ohms....


He he he.

What if your garden is in the 'near field' ? (Obviously no "what if" at
all - it almost certainly is.) Then the garden should be some other value,
NOT 377 ohms, to match your locally generated EM wave.

Also, the ground properties would obviously be NON RECIPROCAL (!!!) since
the other guy's signal would presumably be in the far field and would arrive
in the V/I ratio of 377 ohms.




-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
*** Usenet.com - The #1 Usenet Newsgroup Service on The Planet! ***
http://www.usenet.com
Unlimited Download - 19 Seperate Servers - 90,000 groups - Uncensored
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 03:10 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
RadioBanter.com