View Single Post
Old 12-15-2016, 11:06 AM   #8
NN5I
Carl, nn5i
 
NN5I's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Tallahassee, FL
Posts: 1,441
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by N3LYT View Post
The aircraft is the "ground" single point.
Precisely. Every station, in an ideal world, ought to have a single-point ground. My point was that this need not be, usually ought not to be, and often cannot be, an earth ground. It can just as well be a purely local ground, a common point that isn't really a ground at all, though often called one.

Earth grounds are merely a safety measure. Though it is widely believed that some antennas require earth grounds, actually I don't know of any kind of antenna at all that requires one or is improved by one. A quarter-wave vertical, for example, works better with an isolated ground plane made of wire than it ever possibly could with an earth ground. Radials work best when above ground and not connected to the soil. And so on.
__________________
-- Carl
NN5I is offline   Reply With Quote