Don W wrote in
. net:

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.



When you're at the dock or anchored out, drop a small anchor with the
ground wire attached off the back of the boat overboard, but not touching
bottom so it will follow you around as the boat swings around. My anchor
is a beer can filled with sand. This holds the OTHER half of your
massive dipole vertically in the perfect groundwater for great HF
comms....

PLEASE put a tag on the engine controls to remind you the HF ground is
overboard before starting the engine and blaming me for the fouled prop
backing down...thanks.


Larry
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