John - KD5YI wrote:
Where is the counterpoise on a handheld transceiver? I believe it is the
body of the transceiver, the hand, arm, and body of the operator, and the earth.

****** Yes. If the case is conductive. Even if the case is metal ,
and not
connected to the internal "ground" , it becomes part of the
counterpoise
by capacitance. Of course, the hand is conductive, etc.....


So, I tried to make
some measurements to show how much variation there can be with wire antennas
and to underscore the fact that there is no way anyone can predict what a
wire antenna's impedance will be on the objects the OP referred to under the
myriad of conditions possible.

\
**** And you did that very effectively. I didn't realize that you were
trying
to show the significant variations, and thought you were wondering why
the readings were so different. Sorry,.... I just didn't get your
intent....

I would have liked to see what the piece of wire did with a nice ground
plane, tho, to see what the design baseline would have been.... In
other words,
a piece of wire looks like, say 32 ohms over a ground plane, but when
all the variables such as shape, no ground plane, people, nearby
objects,
etc come into play, it goes from hell to high water.....
I'm glad to see someone actually doing the experiments, rather than
just quoting a bunch of " E to the J Beta pitchforks" and letting it
go at that....... :)))))

Andy W4OAH


Cheers,
John