Thanks Carl The BeeSO

[KG4CGC]

Just made a transcontinental contact with Carl, KJ6BSO on 20m, 14.287 between 23:30z and 23:40z. Propagation was fair, copy was a 4, no band noise, signal was S3 to S6.

[NQ6U]

Well, all reet, Charles, it was fun. Sounds like you have a much better antenna than I do because I could barely pull you out of the mud about half the time. My station is about as basic as it gets and I really need to improve my antenna systems if I ever want to get serious about this ham radio thing.

[KG4CGC]

All I was running was a basic barefoot set up. The Heil GM5 in battle mode helped I guess and I heard you clearly. We have very high iron content in our soil. Might as well call it rust.

[NQ6U]

Good ground conductivity is nice. I know my station RF ground leaves something to be desired, I'm hooked to a cold water pipe though an eight foot length of 4/0 stranded copper (the largest they had at Home Depot) but my connection point is a good ten feet away from where the pipe goes underground. I'd drive a ground rod but my shack is surrounded by a poured concrete walkway and the soil here, while not filled with iron the way yours is, might as well be made of it, it's so hard. Takes a pick and a digging bar to plant a small shrub. But, on the positive side, it's apparently got a lot of aluminum in it so it's above average in conductivity.

[PA5COR]

Use cattle salt, comes in large lumps of rock like salt, dig a hole around your earthrod, fill with that salt.

Will take a year or longer to dissolve depending of the rainfall, and moisture.
Some catlitter fillers containing bentonite can be used as well.

Works for me, and spreading roadsalt in the winter helps too ;)

[NQ6U]

Use cattle salt, comes in large lumps of rock like salt

Cor, check out my Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/22279637@N06/sets/72157603568879238/). You'll see that I have no trouble obtaining salt.

[KG4CGC]

Cor, check out my Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/22279637@N06/sets/72157603568879238/). You'll see that I have no trouble obtaining salt.
Looks delicious!

[ki4itv]

That was cool Carl, enjoyed the tour.:agree:

[NQ6U]

That was cool Carl, enjoyed the tour.:agree:

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. There are several others there if you're interested:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22279637@N06/sets/

[KC2UGV]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. There are several others there if you're interested:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22279637@N06/sets/

That's crazy... Just the thought of that much salt... I thought crunching through a thin layer in dried lake beds was a lot...

[NQ6U]

Each truckload was about 30,000 lbs (13,600 Kg, Cor) and I'd haul in 35-40 a day--roughly a million pounds a day. 60,000 tons± was a typical annual harvest.

If you're real bored (or want to become so), I have a video I made (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVNEjxcMMmY) of one trip of a typical harvest run on YouTube. You can imagine how tedious the job could become.

[n2ize]

Sprinkle some Cesium on your antenna,

[NQ6U]

That would be exciting. Cesium ignites spontaneously in air and reacts explosively with water.

[W7XF]

Carl....
How much salt did CalTrans buy??

[NQ6U]

Carl....
How much salt did CalTrans buy??

Quite a bit, but they bought the real crappy stuff, from what they called the North Stockpile, not the salt you see in any of my photos. That was mostly used for water softening--any Culligan brand salt purchased in southern California and Arizona actually comes from South Bay Salt Works. The stuff CalTrans bought was essentially a waste product that the salt works was happy to get rid of so they sold it really cheap. Hell, even the best stuff was only $110/ton if you bought a whole truckload (20 tons) of it.

CalTrans had an oddball purchase order that they renewed annually where they'd order X number of tons, then send trucks as needed until I told them they'd used it all up (I worked as a driver, a maintenance mechanic and a dispatcher/order taker during my time there).

[W7XF]

So CT uses the shit salt on the highways...

[KG4CGC]

Time sure flies.

[KK4AMI]

It kinda makes you wonder what the life expectancy of all that heavy equipment and trucks might be. That salt must be eating that equipment alive.

[PA5COR]

Depends on the material and protection.
My Hyundai Atos is made of galvanised steel, june 2000 make and has not one spot of rust on it or under it.
And believe me the local authorities here are good at sprinkling copious amounts of roadsals on the streets if the weatherforecast dares to announce a bit of freezing, snow, or wintry percipitation...
I put the underside and beams in undercoating, after an inspection with a endoscope, the car just has 50K miles on the odometer, so it will serve me a long time yet.
Parts are cheap as chips, so keeping the body in good shape is mandatory, the rest can be replaced rather cheaply.

[NQ6U]

It kinda makes you wonder what the life expectancy of all that heavy equipment and trucks might be. That salt must be eating that equipment alive.

They'd go through a trailer in about five years and a tractor would last maybe three. We washed them down thoroughly every afternoon but there was no way to get every bit of salt off them. The trailers would be repainted at the end of every harvest season.

[VE7DCW]

Cor, check out my Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/22279637@N06/sets/72157603568879238/). You'll see that I have no trouble obtaining salt.

My Blood Pleasure just plain increased by viewing all those sodium chloride photographs! :lol:

[PA5COR]

In my province they mine salt as well, though they just put water in the saltlayer and get the brine out and dry that again.
Done in other provinces as well, so we don't have lack on Table/road salt....

[W9JEF]

Good ground conductivity is nice. I know my station RF ground leaves something to be desired, I'm hooked to a cold water pipe though an eight foot length of 4/0 stranded copper (the largest they had at Home Depot) but my connection point is a good ten feet away from where the pipe goes underground. I'd drive a ground rod but my shack is surrounded by a poured concrete walkway and the soil here, while not filled with iron the way yours is, might as well be made of it, it's so hard. Takes a pick and a digging bar to plant a small shrub. But, on the positive side, it's apparently got a lot of aluminum in it so it's above average in conductivity.

If your 20 meter antenna is at a reasonable height,
the ground directly below it has very little to do with getting out.
Your signal at a distant point includes reflection from the ground
some distance from your antenna, but you obviously can't salt such a large area.

Stake and water pipe grounding is primarily for safety.
Best include your powerline neutral in the grounding scheme.

[W7XF]

Da Pope needs moar fire in da wire!

[kb2vxa]

"Da Pope needs moar fire in da wire!"
Please, the LAST thing anybody needs is a lightning strike!

That may be accomplished by sacrificing his first born to the communications god pictured in my avatar accompanied by a prayer for good DX and paying his telephone bills in full on time. Please do not confuse Electric Hermes with the Club Elite ARRL, the Supreme God Of All Electrical Communications in the United States, the FCC, or the Supreme God Of All World Radio, the ITU. Should you make such a mistake your sacrifice shall be in vain and your prayers unanswered, the higher the power the more deaf the ears.

For atheists who rely on science and discuss math to death, you may begin with the whys and wherefores of where the ground reflected wave combining with the direct wave in the near field determines the vertical takeoff angle of the antenna system. Gentlemen, start your engines.

[NQ6U]

Depends on the material and protection.
My Hyundai Atos is made of galvanised steel, june 2000 make and has not one spot of rust on it or under it.
And believe me the local authorities here are good at sprinkling copious amounts of roadsals on the streets if the weatherforecast dares to announce a bit of freezing, snow, or wintry percipitation...

There's no comparison, Cor. The occasional dash of road salt is nothing like a solid six month harvest season running on roads literally made of salt, not to mention having tons of salt ladled into (and frequently over) your vehicle. Trust me—as good as the rustproofing may be on your little Korean car, it would not last long under those conditions.

[X-Rated]

If your 20 meter antenna is at a reasonable height,
the ground directly below it has very little to do with getting out.
Your signal at a distant point includes reflection from the ground
some distance from your antenna, but you obviously can't salt such a large area.

Stake and water pipe grounding is primarily for safety.
Best include your powerline neutral in the grounding scheme.

I didn't comment because I couldn't tell if it was a vertical antenna or a horizontal antenna. Yup. A horizontal antenna needs to be a half wave high off the ground and it is like a honey badger. It don't care what the ground is like. A vertical thrives on good ground conductivity.

[W9JEF]

I didn't comment because I couldn't tell if it was a vertical antenna or a horizontal antenna. Yup. A horizontal antenna needs to be a half wave high off the ground and it is like a honey badger. It don't care what the ground is like. A vertical thrives on good ground conductivity.

Unless an antenna is in free space, ground reflections always come into play.
It would be highly unusual to have a grounded quarter-wave vertical for 20 meters.
For this breed of vertical, ground conductivity at and near the base is very important
--in which case, there's no such thing as "too many radials."

Far-field ground conductivity is good for any antenna,
which makes ocean-front property ideal for DX.

[X-Rated]

For the first time in my life, I am moving to somewhere the line noise is under S4 so I think that DX will be very good for me from now on.

[W9JEF]

For the first time in my life, I am moving to somewhere the line noise is under S4 so I think that DX will be very good for me from now on.

That's why I'm so "glad to be a country boy" (apologies to the memory of John Denver).

I often see an S-ZERO noise level on the low bands--even with the verticals. :)

[X-Rated]

Some of my worst line noise was when I started in ham radio in 1976 - miles outside the city. Just because you live nowhere near another 100 people doesn't mean you don't live close to a line insulator needing replaced that the power company refuses to replace.

[W9JEF]

.



Yep, when I was first licensed, we were about a block away from some transmission lines.

Been living here for over 30 years, and the only noise heard was traced to our own devices.

Good luck (and hopefully, good bye, noise) at your new QTH. :)