A valid point but Gordon West also states that with the modern
couplers/tuners, we no longer need to run huge amounts of ground foil
and to link EVERY thru-hull to have a good ground plane. It used to
be that a MINIMUM of 100 sq. ft. of counterpoise was recommended.
He's a ham who writes books and magazine articles offering advice on
the best way to install your HF radio system. I don't think he'd risk
his rep telling you to install an inferior ground plane just to sell
some foil. And I don't think SGC has a monetary interest in telling
us to mount the coupler as close to the base of the antenna as
practical. In any case, I've istalled my system and others this way,
all with great success. Regards, Mark


Gary Schafer wrote in message . ..
You don't suppose they are trying to sell ground foil do you? :)

Ask Bruce about ground planes on fly bridges. :)

Regards
Gary


On 22 Nov 2003 04:18:15 -0800, (Mark Reichow)
wrote:

Also read Gordon West's excellent primer on radio gound planes for
boats. It comes packed with the West Marine 2" copper foil gound kit,
which by the way comes in 25' AND 50' lengths. (That may say
something about the length of gound leads right there.) He points out
that the tuner is mounted next to the antenna on the flybridge of
power boats, and at the base of the antenna (backstay) of sailboats.