‰  NOW 35 WPM  ‰
GETTING TO KNOW YOUR RADIO A DOWN TO EARTH VIEW OF STATION GROUNDS SINCE
THIS IS THE ANNUAL QST ANTENNA ISSUE, I WANTED TO DO SOMETHING RELATED TO
ANTENNAS, BUT NOT STEAL THE THUNDER OF OUR EXCELLENT TECHNICAL AUTHORS.
WHAT BETTER TOPIC THAN GROUNDS IN SOME WAYS RELATED TO ANTENNAS, AND
PERHAPS ONE OF THE TOUGHEST OF TOPICS FOR MANY OF US TO UNDERSTAND.  SO
WHATS NOT TO UNDERSTAND?  IT DOES SEEM THAT GROUND SHOULD BE AN EASY TOPIC.
AFTER ALL WE MOSTLY HAVE OUR FEET ON IT MOST OF THE TIME.  UNFORTUNATELY, I
BELIEVE THE CONFUSION STEMS FROM THE FACT THAT THERE ARE A NUMBER OF PLACES
THAT THE CONCEPT OF GROUND APPEARS IN AND AROUND AN AMATEUR RADIO STATION
AND THEY CAN BE QUITE DIFFERENT.  LETS TALK ABOUT EACH IN TURN.  THE
ANTENNA GROUND IT SHOULD BE CLEAR TO ANYONE AWARE OF AIRBORNE OR SPACE
COMMUNICATIONS, THAT AN ACTUAL PHYSICAL GROUND IS NOT A REQUIREMENT FOR
RADIO STATION OPERATION.  IT IS TRUE, HOWEVER, THAT SOME TYPES OF ANTENNAS
DO REQUIRE A REAL OR AN ARTIFICIAL GROUND TO OPERATE PROPERLY.  THE CLASSIC
EXAMPLE IS A MARCONI ANTENNA, A  /4 WIRE FED AGAINST GROUND.  IN THIS CASE
SEE FIGURE 1, THE GROUND IS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ANTENNA, NOT THE STATION
‰  FROM PAGE 97  ‰
K4MEZ/354 K4MPE/365 K4MS/353 K4MZ/353 K4NA/344 K4PR/342 K4TAG/350 K4TQ/340
K4TXJ/348 K4UTE/359 K4WS/351 K4XG/362 K4XR/347 K4XU/348 K4YR/382 K4ZO/345
K4ZW/344 K4ZYU/358 K5BG/340 K5CSK/349 K5ESW/354 K5IH/343 K5JUC/345 K5KC/348
‰  END OF 35 WPM TEXT  ‰  QST DE W1AW  ƒ