Okay here is my question.
Okay here is my question.
I use the talking house for my church radio station. I have the transmitter mounted near the ceiling of the church grounds garage. I am using a 4 ft fire stick cb antenna with 6 foot of lead in attached to the antenna post of the talking house indoor antenna "atu". I know that the antenna is grounded through the ground connection on the wall wart. The garage service has a long ground rod embedded into the ground for the secondary grounding. If I connect ground radials to this ground rod, will that improve my signal strength ? I figure I could still use the internal atu and be in compliance without adding any extra length to the 3 meter antenna. Am I barking up the wrong tree? I figured it was worth asking before I decided to experiment with the external base loaded antenna idea for more signal strength. Thanks for any good advice on my thought.
Seven Sorrows Radio 1650 Dave
Probably the best response you could get is simply - try it.
I doubt you'll see any difference because of the separation from the antenna but until you try...
The first problem I see could be the Fire Stick CB antenna.
My thinking is this is probably a helical wound or continuously loaded antenna. That debate is logged somewhere in the data bank here I'm sure.
Some view it as a loading coil but it is the radiating surface of the antenna. As such, it's not the length of the fiberglass rod but the length of the wire wound around the rod that counts. At least that's how the debate went.
If this Fire Stick is just a fiberglass rod with a simple wire running the length of the fiberglass rod it should be fine. Four feet of wire in the rod, six feet of wire connecting it to the Talking House makes a ten foot antenna.
Ground radials provide the path from the antenna to ground. That's how the signal path completes the circuit through the air. Consequently, the vertical antenna must be mounted in the center of the radials for it to work
Expanding a bit on Ken's comment with an analogy think of the antenna as the nozzle of a fountain which is spraying water upward. Unless this water is collected and returned to the pump (the transmitter) there will be no more water flow into the air. A collection basin does this and in the same manner the ground radials do this for the current needed for the antenna by collecting the current from the ground and returning it to the transmitter.
A ground rod or a connection to a power ground does this to some extent for an antenna system but it would be similar to using a bucket at one side of the fountain to collect and return the water. A lot of water would not be returned to the pump.
I haven't answered your question but it appears to me that the use of radials would not hurt and probably will help your signal. You can try this rather inexpensively by using some small gauge wire (maybe magnet wire or lamp cord wire) and placing the radials in a starburst pattern under the antenna and connecting them to the transmitter ground. If you are satisfied with the results then a more robust radial system could be installed.
Neil
Thanks guys. You have been most helpful. It's worth a try. Also there is a nice water pipe in the garage which supplies even more grounding to the pipes under the church grounds. I'm figuring that the internal atu is part of the antenna circuit and has to be grounded to the green wire on the wall wart in order for the antenna to work. Earth ground is earth ground so if I attach multiple ground radials to the electrical ground rod and also connect the water pipe to them and the internal atu still calibrates, it should help out because the internal atu is tuning the antenna using earth ground as the common reference through the wall wart ground. I will let you fellas know how it works out.
I tend to agree with you about the firestick. I'm going to go with a 4 ft piece of conduit and the 6 ft piece of heavy wire for the antenna. Then I will attach the ground radials to the ground rod and water pipe and see what happens. Worth a shot at the very least.
Unless you can see the windings around the rod, it may be a simple wire embeded in the rod. Perhaps there is some tech data for that antenna around.
If it is a helical wound antenna then I'm surprised the Talking House automatic tuner was able to tune to it.
I've played around with different antennas connected to the internal tuner and more often than not it would not tune up.