Antenna ground or counterpoise isn't the same than house ground/earth neither serves the same purpose.
A counterpoise (grounded or not) is used to avoid returning RF towards the rig via balancing the antenna and is dependent of its design. What you're doing is using the house wiring in the hope that it'll become an RF sink but at same time you're adding all that wiring to the antenna. That may pick not only all the electrical noise of any posible derivation in the circuit but also letting it act as a -presumibly- huge antenna picking up whatever is around. It just happens that that also goes to the receiver.
Counterpoise length should be stated or suggested in the manual,
On Friday, November 15 2024, 14:32:21, John G0GCD via groups.io wrote:
Not FT817 directly, but I intend to use the kit with it.
The instructions say that best performance is had with a ground or a counterpoise. Just for fun, I tried the house ground and that's
extremely noisy. Any recommendations for a suitable length of counterpoise?
The intended use is on the dining table of any holiday let we stay in.. so it'll need to snake around the room, I think.
Also, any feedback on how well these antenna kits work? Anything is better than nothing but the vendor feedback has an equal
balance of (very) good and (very) bad reviews.
Thanks
John G0GCD
--
The less you know, the sounder you sleep.
--- Russian proverb
