[BC] Chucks AM Grounding Question

[Milton Holladay]

On 2/14/2012 11:52: Cowboy wrote:
>For the most part, Dave is right !
>Once the wave has been launched, you're at the mercy of the terrain.

Yes, the launch seems to be the important thing, and my observation is that it is not possible to get a good launch from a sandhill, i.e., a sandy region.  ( Most all of SC is shown as a 2 or 4 but measurements have shown it to be much less, and a great deal of it is sandhillls.)
One sand-challenged 10 kw station has a relatively poor signal in spite of the extra set of short radials that is supposed to help in sand.
Another station has an excellent signal although it is just across a swamp from and somewhat surrounded by a sandhill area of hundreds of square miles, but it gets its launch from a clay-ey area.
Another site near a swamp had a poor signal across the swamp it was near and it was found that the swamp was on a geologic fault
So: you're at the mercy of the soils and terrain.
You should try to put in radials at least 4/10ths wavelength long if you want to  maximize the signal, according to Dr. Brown.....
M