Best Antenna Practices (

[@kelvin0mql]

My first shack ground “rod” a few decades ago was copper pipe, with a brass garden hose coupling soldered to it. Attach the hose, turn on the water, & push the end straight down. We didn’t have a lot of rocks in the soil - mostly sandy clay - so it went in like a hot knife through butter. Worked fantastic; so easy.

[@Siskiyous6]

Does he even have the band set for the antenna he has? Honestly I am not sure why you took the question. He needs an Elmer on site, or to do a lot of reading. 73

[@Hardcastle420]

Just drove a few ground rods home today with a vertical pounder made for driving T-posts into the ground, and it worked a treat! Finished them with about 5 good whacks with a hand sledge. 73 de KB0IEY

[@watthairston1483]

I think you covered it well given the NEI... NEI being Not Enough Information as opposed to the Too Much Information (TMI) situation... Great video Dave... '73....

[@clarkearcher6966]

A dummy load will also prove the integrity of the 18' length of rg213. But the ohmmeter trick is still a favorite of mine. Everyone has one. Great advice.

[@norrinradd8952]

Well, he did state in his question that it was a dipole. The only dipole I could find in MFJ's catalog that specifically mentions 20 - 6m is the MFJ 1779C which is a single band dipole kit that needs to be cut to length. If that's the case and the instructions were followed, I believe Dave's conclusion is the logical one. Get out the test equipment and start checking continuity. Good advice. I would still like to know the length of the antenna (cut or not) and which band he was attempting to operate. Also, which radio, tuner or not, etc. Just out of curiosity.

[@DanielHallmark]

I do agree with the use of an in-line lightning arrestor, grounding coax at the point of entry, and bonding supplemental electrodes. I would recommend that installers should consult a qualified electrician regarding NEC code requirements around supplemental ground rods. Getting this wrong can increase risk to both life and equipment. Mike Holt has produced some good videos on this topic. My unqualified understanding is that ground rods should be bonded using minimum 6 AWG *solid* bare copper - not stranded. One document I reviewed (for traffic light installations in MN) suggested using 6 AWG stranded for bonding supplemental electrodes, but in that case they were enclosed inside a buried metal conduit between the electrodes. 6 AWG insulated stranded is commonly recommended for connecting equipment to the common/single equipment grounding point / bus.

[@bullcage]

I just installed a Discone antenna on the side of my garage and ran a 50' coax into my garage. I get good SWR but want to install a lightning arrestor. What is a good yet affordable brand to go with? My coax runs right past my house ground rod so it would be an easy install. I don't have an Elmer so I figure I can ask Mr. Casler's fans.

[@ProperLogicalDebate]

Years ago the galvanized water pipe to the garage and back 40 started leaking so the landlord cut it off at the house. I'm thinking of connecting the ground to that at the house as it runs about 40 feet underground till it comes up again to a faucet. Thanks 73 AG7MW

[@rpremo2980]

Hi Dave, hopefully you could recommend an ideal antenna configuration for HF 80/40M primarily; also wondering how well NVIS will work with this land. I have a challenging terrain in a North facing, downslope property. House has 3 livable levels at Slopes of 84%,59%,56%; Laser range finder measured 53 degrees, 32 degrees, 29 degrees from the street at bottom of hill. Would you have recommendations of station location either 59% or 56% level of house and recommended Antenna considering Northern slope oriented takeoff for 80/40 and NVIS (assuming two diff antenna minimally)

[@aurtisanminer2827]

On my hf radios (Yaesu) the swr scale maxes out if the swr is higher than about 4:1. I dont know how icom’s hf rigs display swr, though.

[@1903A3shooter]

part of the feed line is latter line.

[@TimR1099]

Dave, the first time you read the letter you said he was using an “18’ section of coax”. When you read it the second time, you said “18’ sections of coax.” It may be that he is stringing coax section together to make a longer piece of coax. He may have an issue with a section or multiple sections of coax or he may have a bad connector or two. Good info in your explanation though. Thanks. 73s. Tim KO4EZG

[@IowaSheepdog]

I caught that as well and thought the same thing.

[@1shARyn3]

a hydraulic drill makes insertion of ground rods very easy and very fast --- even in high caliche soil (~ 5-10 minutes for an 8' ground rod)

[@drjtgill]

I hooked a water hose to a 8’ pipe and used water flow, with a little push down, and had a hole formed quickly. I pulled the pipe out and dropped the ground rod in. Thankfully I didn’t have to deal with rocky soil!

[@kc9gld902]

I've always used an impact drill, shut off the twist, sei the drill chuck on top of the 8' rod, pull the trigger and it will impact it in, less than 2 minutes. Forget the hammer...

[@rickvia8435]

Shorted/ open PL259 connection...

[@Larry-jf4jm]

18 ft. Coax makes me think it might be a poorly installed coax connector (PL259). I would first look there.

[@TheNoCodeTech]

cool

[@buzzsah]

did he say he has been on the radio since 86?

[@Rickm505]

Probably using an EFHW.

[@tylerdean980]

@AJ K Why would you need this much coax? MFJ says in their manuals for their end fed half waves that you can use a very short run of coax.

[@DanielHallmark]

Depending on the precise details of the installation, the coax shield of the feedline can be a part of the radiating system for an EFHW. It is possible to suppress this behavior by using an RF choke at the feedpoint in combination with a short counterpoise wire attached to the ground lug of the 49:1 transformer. I am running a homebrew 40:10 EFHW with only 12.5' of coax between the feedpoint and the grounded lightning arrestor. It tunes up perfectly on both 40 and 20. I'm out a bit on 15 and 10 but I think that may be an issue with the parallel capacitors installed across the feedline to ground. Both 15 and 10 are still inductive on a NanoVNA. Steve Ellington's EFHW videos suggest one can also install the RF choke about 7' from the feedpoint without using a supplemental counterpoise. That length of coax was sufficient to act as an effective counterpoise in his experiments.

[@tylerdean980]

@@DanielHallmark Okay, that might be why I have high SWR, lol I'm only using a 5 foot jumper for my end fed. After some more research I'm getting similar issues to others as well, transmit audio coming through my PC speakers and everything.

[@pathdoc]

Why can't people write a clear explanation of what they mean? We're supposed to be communication experts.

[@HitchHiker4Freedom]

73 😎

[@martinsoos]

Gotten any sleep lately?