Pensacola FL Sailing Blog - sailingnightwatch

Does it get easier? No! The tanks are again in the way, but this is the lesser of the 2 evils. There are two plates and it is preferred to install them end to end. They are suppose to be no more then 7 feet from the antenna tuner. That is not going to happen. I can manage about 8 to 9 feet to the first bolt on the first plate. I think that is pretty good. Then there is this theory of using copper straps for a grounding wire. They sell a 3 inch wide roll for this purpose. That means cutting 3½ to 4 inch slots in bulkheads to install the grounding strap.

Then you can get on the forums and read about everybody else’s theory. Ground it to the engine. No, do not ground it to the engine, because you are just grounding back to your battery bank. A no, no! Ground through the through hulls. Oh No! Grounding different type metals. Messes up the anti corrosion system. What to do, what to do.

I bought the plates. They will be installed in October when the boat gets hauled for a bottom job. Does this answer the counterpoise question? No. I may string a couple wires for a couple frequencies to see if the system works before then. After all, one of the theories is to do both.