Thanks, Rodd. I’ve now downloaded that article and will read it ASAP. I’m
about to set sail from Curacao for Cartagena, though, so maybe it’ll get
read en route. I did ground my tuner as per Gordon West – 3″ copper foil
strap to 3 bonded bronze thru-hulls plus an additional double-lag into the
keel’s lead ballast – so I believe my counterpoise is right on. Still, my
transmitting power is very weak. I need to get hold of an SWR meter to test
things out and will soon, but I’m now suspecting the tuner simply may not be
tuning. I’m not smart enough to know for sure, so I plan to have a pro check
it all out in Cartagena.

Tor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Silver Heels, P-424 #17
http://www.silverheels.us
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rodd,
Interesting. I know of several folks who regularly get good signal reports
from HF rigs mounted in cars, even as low as 80m. There is clearly no
contact with salt-water and have a meager ground plane. I think the 100sqft
figure was left over from the days when everyone had LORAN receivers
onboard. I still have mine in good working order. You need a big ground
plane for a good LORAN receiver.

I still suggest getting as much ground as practical. More can’t hurt, and
you can never have too much. I have two bronze Dynaplates, one at the base
of the mast and a second close to the antenna tuner with copper foil running
between them. I’m spoiled though. I have good antennas at home and nothing
I do on the boat compares.

Lower frequencies require bigger antennas and bigger ground-planes. I’ve
never been able to get my backstay to tune up on 80m and 160 is out of the
question. I don’t think it’s a ground-plane issue though. Just a simple
matter of the resonant length of the backstay. The SGC tuner doesn’t have
enough adjustment. I’ll play with it next season and see if I can put
something in there to help the SGC.

If any of you hams out there want to play around with getting a Worked All
States certificate, I recommend checking out OMISS. Download their software
first and then log into one of their nets. They make it easy (almost).

http://www.omiss.net/Facelift/

Regards
Rich

I love a good side-by-side test! Thanks!

Pete

On 6/7/2010 5:10 PM, Rodd Leeds wrote:

Tor and the group-

Thought of you when I found this article by Gordon West re SSB capacitive ground. Check it out!

http://www.kp44.org/ftp/SeawaterGroundingFor_HF_Radios_byGordonWest.pdf

Rodd Leeds
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I just returned to Norfolk after a 6 day sail from Nassau. When I was in Nassau I added the KISS Ground Plane Antenna to my tuner. I am simply amazed at how much better my  rig worked on the way up. On the 5 and 8 mghz bands for SailMail, I can see at least a doubling of my power ou,t measured with an SWR. I was able to connected faster and at higher rates than I have been able to all winter.
Alan

— On Mon, 6/7/10, Silver Heels wrote:

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Website link?

Post generated from Pearson424 Forum using Mail2Forum

http://www.kiss-ssb.com/

— On Sat, 6/12/10, Thatcher A. Stone wrote:

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