Doug
My Nic 35 has internal ballast also. I drilled into the lead and tapped a
bronze rod into it and attached the foil to that. great counterpoise

--
Dennis Gibbons
S/V Dark Lady
CN35-207
email: dennis dash gibbons at worldnet dot att dot net
"Doug Dotson" wrote in message
...
Garland,

Unfortunately on my current boat the keel is internal so it has no
keel bolts. I did have my counterpoise tied to a keel bolt on my
previous boat. Every now and then I have to remove the hose
clamp, clean the seacock and foil and put them back together.
I'm thinking of installing a Dynaplate just for the counterpoise
to make the installation cleaner.

Doug,k3qt
s/v Callista

"Garland Gray II" wrote in message
news:HMpAb.37579$_h.6805@lakeread02...
Doug,
I've just started looking at this newsgroup, and had seen your
mentioning
this in an older thread. Knowing you had a keelboat, I assumed you had
also
tied in to your keel, but since not, maybe that is all I will need to
do.

Before I start, I want to have a clear plan of what/where to add if I
find
I need to.

Thanks for the info.

Garland

"Doug Dotson" wrote in message
...
Garland,

Recent wisdom in this always controvercial topic is to use foil to
connect the tuner/radio to a through-hull. I have mine wrapped around
a scupper seacock and held with a hose clamp. Works as good as
any installation I have encountered that has extensive foil layed down
including my previous boat. Try this simple approach first, then if it
doesn't work well start laying down foil etc. All boats are different.
What works great on my boat may not work well on yours.
Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista

"Garland Gray II" wrote in message
news:B5nAb.37355$_h.35620@lakeread02...
I'm about to install the SSB ground system in my catamaran. Since I
don't
have a lead keel, and my water tank is well above the w/l, seems I
might
be
needing to lay down a lot of copper strips in the bilge.
The operators manual suggested that a 3" strip separated 3" from an
adjacent
3" strip would be equivalent to a 9" strip. Is this the maximum
separation
to achieve this phenomonem? If the strips could be 2 feet apart, and
still
be effective as a 2+ foot wide strip, that would save a lot of time
and
materials. Probably too good to be true though. But if it did wow,
maybe
I
could lay strips in both hulls, connected together at each end, and
have
a
monster ground plane.
Since this probably wouldn't work, what is the most efficient way to
make
the ground system in a catamaran?