Hello Alfred,

You've received some interesting comments. Let me toss an additional
consideration into the water. While it is true that RF will easily pass
through the capacitor formed by the hull and the seawater, I doubt that
it will matter much on a large aluminum vessel. The resistance (both RF
and DC) of your hull is probably orders of magnitude less than the
effective resistance of the seawater "ground" system around your
antenna. Seawater makes a better RF return path than dirt, but one that
is much poorer than aluminum. Moreover, I imagine that your hull may be
at least 40 ft in length. So not only is your hull a low-resistance
"ground" but it is a fairly efficient one as well.

As Larry pointed out, because of this, you will find that your SSB works
fine even when you are on land.

By all means, connect your tuner ground to the hull. It will definitely
not hurt and is likely to improve your SSB signal.

Good luck.

Chuck

Alfred Bauer wrote:
I want to install a ssb radio on my aluminium sailing yacht. The person who
installs the radio says that the grounding plate should be welded on the
inside of the hull. The hull is fully painted with anti fouling. He argues
that the high frequency connection to the see water is made through a
capacitor effect, the hull acting as a big capacitor, the water being the
other side and the antifouling in between is the isolator.

I hardly can believe that this works.

Is this true ?

Can this work ?

Has any one experience with SSB grounding on aluminium hulls.



Alfred