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An update of sorts:
Just installed a 6' ground rod at the tower base using the watering method, went down in under 10 minutes with a 4lb sledge hammer, so thumbs up for the watering the hole method.
However after strapping it to the tower and coming inside, SWR is the same as before at 1.08 or so on ch20, and 1.15 at channel edges. If I remove that wire attached to the tower though the SWR goes back up some, so the wire is definitely doing something odd that even a ground rod isn't replacing or helping with, but at least now I will feel a little more comfortable when storms come through.

It's unfortunate that reading one of the replies here suggests my 20' tower with the now ground rod installed is somehow a bad length. SWR looks great and my added wire gimmick seems to help. I certainly am not experiencing bad CMC that I can tell. I really don't want to go down to 10' of tower, nor do I want to add more length since it's already a PITA to get it up on that 20' worth with my limited tooling. I have a bad feeling that if I were to mess with things further by adding height it might just make things worse, or as they say.. if it's not broke.. ?

Makes me wonder what other peoples experiences are with EFHW 11m antennas mounted around 20', no CMC choke, non-isolated, and soil grounded?

<blockquote data-quote="darklife" data-source="post: 732261" data-attributes="member: 31545">An update of sorts:Just installed a 6&#039; ground rod at the tower base using the watering method, went down in under 10 minutes with a 4lb sledge hammer, so thumbs up for the watering the hole method.However after strapping it to the tower and coming inside, SWR is the same as before at 1.08 or so on ch20, and 1.15 at channel edges. If I remove that wire attached to the tower though the SWR goes back up some, so the wire is definitely doing something odd that even a ground rod isn&#039;t replacing or helping with, but at least now I will feel a little more comfortable when storms come through.It&#039;s unfortunate that reading one of the replies here suggests my 20&#039; tower with the now ground rod installed is somehow a bad length. SWR looks great and my added wire gimmick seems to help. I certainly am not experiencing bad CMC that I can tell. I really don&#039;t want to go down to 10&#039; of tower, nor do I want to add more length since it&#039;s already a PITA to get it up on that 20&#039; worth with my limited tooling. I have a bad feeling that if I were to mess with things further by adding height it might just make things worse, or as they say.. if it&#039;s not broke.. ?Makes me wonder what other peoples experiences are with EFHW 11m antennas mounted around 20&#039;, no CMC choke, non-isolated, and soil grounded?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="darklife, post: 732261, member: 31545"] An update of sorts: Just installed a 6' ground rod at the tower base using the watering method, went down in under 10 minutes with a 4lb sledge hammer, so thumbs up for the watering the hole method. However after strapping it to the tower and coming inside, SWR is the same as before at 1.08 or so on ch20, and 1.15 at channel edges. If I remove that wire attached to the tower though the SWR goes back up some, so the wire is definitely doing something odd that even a ground rod isn't replacing or helping with, but at least now I will feel a little more comfortable when storms come through. It's unfortunate that reading one of the replies here suggests my 20' tower with the now ground rod installed is somehow a bad length. SWR looks great and my added wire gimmick seems to help. I certainly am not experiencing bad CMC that I can tell. I really don't want to go down to 10' of tower, nor do I want to add more length since it's already a PITA to get it up on that 20' worth with my limited tooling. I have a bad feeling that if I were to mess with things further by adding height it might just make things worse, or as they say.. if it's not broke.. ? Makes me wonder what other peoples experiences are with EFHW 11m antennas mounted around 20', no CMC choke, non-isolated, and soil grounded? [/QUOTE]

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