Second Vertical in the Salt Marsh.
First off, check out the view from the operating position and deck this morning! Lots of rain yesterday. We were able to install the second vertical in the saltwater marsh this afternoon. She went up beautifully, despite strong winds, and rides well after being guyed. The ground system consists of the four ground rods depicted in the previous update, slammed down into the mud. AWG #10 wires bond the ground rods back to the support pipe. She tuned to a 52 Ohm input impedance with 4 Ohms of reactance at 7.190 Mhz! An hour later everything changed as the water receded with the tide, apparently causing the vertical to resonate at 8 Mhz! I guess we need to just install the ground radials tomorrow!
The Next Day...
Whoops! Correction. After lengthening the vertical to bring it to resonance, the hose clamp used to tighten the junction slipped, causing the vertical to slip back down in itself, throwing the resonance back up to 8 Mhz. How did this happen? I got so excited after tuning the aerial that I went back inside and tried it out, rather then returning in what available light remained to finish the job by drilling a hole to set in a sheet metal screw. So the vertical slipped back down inside it's telescoping self after a little while in the blowing winds, and raised its resonant frequency by so doing. I realized this the next morning when sipping a cup of coffee on the deck admiring the vertical, and then spitting out a mouthful when I noted the guy lines were all slack. I fucked up on that one.
Am going out to correct this now so we can finally A/B between ground rods and radials this evening.
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