Count Floyd wrote:

I have heard a lot about grounding and using baluns, but I am using
the cold water faucet in the back yard, it has an old-fashioned strap
with a screw on the top that I put the ground wire in and tighten it
down. Is this any good, or would something else be better?
Thanks,
Bob

If the "cold water faucet in the backyard" is actually attached to the
house, it will most likely not be directly grounded to the earth.
Somewhere in the house there is a ground wire connecting the cold water
plumbing to the electrical system ground, which is usually an outside
ground rod. In that case the outside faucet is not a good RF ground. You
would do better to build a ground system for your radio like the kind
being discussed here in the other thread on this topic.