Hanz Schmidt wrote in
:

I'm afraid of using copper. Can the 3-4" aluminum be use instead of
copper foil??



RF isn't too finicky about "foil"....or roof flashing....or even wire, as
long as it doesn't have any of those yachtie-neat sharp turns in it. As
a matter of fact, the more SHORT paths to that nice aluminum hull, the
better!

Polish off the aluminum oxide that coats everything, including the end of
the aluminum wire from the tuner ground post. Use several RING, not
spade (yecch), terminals crimped to several aluminum wires on the ground
bolt. Run these wires in different directions to the NEAREST bolt you
can find. Polish the bolt and all surfaces of oxide. 3 or 4 parallel
grounds in different directions makes a VERY low impedance RF ground
that'll work great. (I'm envious of anyone with a METAL boat, not
plastic with no ground.) We're looking for the shortest ground wire to
the metal boat with the least turns and NO SHARP TURNS, no matter how
"neat" it looks.

Make sure you run through all the channels and RETUNE the tuner on each
frequency after making any changes to antenna or ground installation as
the whole tuning chart needs to be redone by the computer.

You should see the ham club's metal boat....the USS Yorktown (CV-10)
Naval Museum at Patriot's Point in Charleston. Their ground is a WHOLE
AIRCRAFT CARRIER! Signal reports read like we were a 50KW broadcast
flamethrower...(c; Club callsign is WA4USN (United States Navy), of
course...

Larry W4CSC....for Charleston South Carolina
--
While in Mexico, I didn't have to press 1 for Spanish.

It just isn't fair.