Larry wrote:

snip
Now, you can, while you're at sea traveling ahead and not backing over
it, create a pseudo copy of this earth with a single wire hooked straight
to the tuner's ground post, thrown directly overboard to trail out in the
ocean behind the boat...straight as you can get it. The longer the
better, but a good length is from 15-35 meters long. DON'T forget to
roll it up as you come into port so it fouls rudder or screw! This dirty
little secret is a MUCH better earth for your HF radio than anything
screwed under the hull. Even hookup wire will work, but a nice old piece
of stainless winch cable with lots of open strands that won't rust makes
a fantastic trailing-earth ground. Try it with and without....doing a
retune on the tuner as it WILL change the feedpoint impedance of your HF
antenna quite drastically, once connected.

No big $$$ outlay is necessary....just an old piece of stainless cable,
tied off to a sturdy handrail post or the base of the backstay below the
bottom insulator is fine. Don't worry about it sinking. If it were
100' STRAIGHT DOWN, which it won't be unless you're becalmed, that would
be BEST! It doesn't need a dragging anchor to attract the really big
fish, either. If you like, you can just trail it out when making HF
calls, then coil it back in to store it. Works great...

Larry W4CSC

Larry,

I'll bet it does work great. I studied field
theory in engineering school, but I wouldn't have
thought of this without you mentioning it.

Now if I can only remember this when I need it ;-)

Also, it'd sure be great if lightning grounds were
this simple... But unfortunately...

Don W.