The good old boys over on rec.boats.electronics continually worry over
having enough ground plane for their seagoing HF SSB antennae, which
typically comprise a vertical or near vertical insulated rigging element fed
thru a tuner. All of my HF antenna experience has been on land and I was
always led to believe that salt water otta make a great ground plane for a
HF vertical - at least a whole lot better than the dirt under mine. So why
does everybody add copper strips, et cetera, to their bildges?

TIA
Howard, K3DWW