Copper foil for SSB grounding

philmarks

philmarks

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I'm trying to obtain some 3" copper foil for grounding an SSB transceiver ATU. So far unable to locate any UK suppliers using mr google.

Can anyone point me to a UK supplier please?

Thanks
 
john_morris_uk said:
There’s lots of copper sheet of varying thicknesses and widths and lengths on eBay. There’s certainly 100mm and 200mm widths. Any reason why you want 75mm particularly?

If it’s to connect to a sintered plate wide tinned copped braid is good.
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I have succesfully used 50mm wide copper strip bought on a roll. Its not foil as its quite thick. Our current yacht has it as a means of attaching the ground plate and the engine block, mizzen mast etc. We do have particulary good reception on our SSB compared to a couple of friends using a kiss system
 
At the cheaper end of the scale (free), I used the flexible lightning conductor like you'd see up the sides of buildings.

The local lightning protection installer had a shelf full of offcuts, all of which were long enough to do what I needed. I chose the coated ones because they looked tidier on board.

Lightning conductor offcut used for HF ground connection

I can't compare since it's the only ground I have on board - but I've reached most of world (using ICOM 706MkiiG on 5W) using WSPRnet Weak Signal Propagation Reporter network.

WSPRnet map showing where my callsign was heard

PS - Antenna is approx 21foot vertical on the pushpit, with 9:1 Balun at the base and LDG IT100 ATU at the chart table by the rig. I considered upgrading but it seems to have worked for the past five years.
 
Martin_J said:
At the cheaper end of the scale (free), I used the flexible lightning conductor like you'd see up the sides of buildings.

The local lightning protection installer had a shelf full of offcuts, all of which were long enough to do what I needed. I chose the coated ones because they looked tidier on board.

Lightning conductor offcut used for HF ground connection

I can't compare since it's the only ground I have on board - but I've reached most of world (using ICOM 706MkiiG on 5W) using WSPRnet Weak Signal Propagation Reporter network.

WSPRnet map showing where my callsign was heard

PS - Antenna is approx 21foot vertical on the pushpit, with 9:1 Balun at the base and LDG IT100 ATU at the chart table by the rig. I considered upgrading but it seems to have worked for the past five years.
Click to expand...

But with a balun and a balanced antenna, the ground connection may not be critical anyway? or is it not really acting as a balun?
 
Maybe I should have called it a 9:1 UNUN... since it's unbalanced co-ax to unbalanced random wire.

So I'd expect it to be working as a counterpoise.. I've never had time to test it without the ground.

It's a bit like the diagram here.. (just found with a quick internet search)
https://m0ukd.com/homebrew/baluns-and-ununs/91-magnetic-longwire-balun-unun/

As to the lightning conductor usage.. Icom suggest that at a pinch 1" strip could be used.. but how about their suggestion that a three inch strip mounted three inches away from another three inch strip acts as a nine inch strip..!
Icom_-_Grounding_and_antenna_considerations.pdf

Phil - Apologies for going off track here.. . Back to your question..
How about a quick search on Amazon.. 100mm wide 4 metres for £13.49
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Copper-Shielding tape 100mm wide
 
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Thanks all for your input. I had researched this fairly thoroughly and the conclusion was that it should be 75 mm x 3mm thick; braid was not advised for RF. I saw the foil on Amazon, but that's thin and seems to be used mainly for emi shielding. I had also read the icom article. There's a lot of conflicting advice out there and read a few of the posts some of you had made on earlier threads.

I have a steel boat and don't want a great length so I think I will have to go with lightning conductor strip (and insulate it) as a start. I will also have to solder in some 0.15 uf capacitors.

Thanks again and a merry Christmas to you all.
 
Thin should work well - It's the surface that conducts at these frequencies.. But I guess with conducting adhesive you would not have any control over where the flows go in your boat..

ICOM actually suggest in that PDF that "Your better marine electronic stores that sell ICOM equipment will also sell three-inch wide, super-thin, copper foil for grounding."

I seem to think that I soldered the capacitors (to stop DC ) to a breadboard and then bolted the lightning conductor strips to either side.. I'll try and find a photo..
 
I don't think that foil is necessary.
I did a series of experiments on my boat one summer, with a variety of connections to the "ground" (sea).
The simplest, and what I ended up with and have used now for years is a series of 5 wires inside the hull. These are plain cipper sheated in plastic (like domestic house 240V single wire cable). My ATU is 1m from the bottom of the backstay, connected by a single wire between them. The ground portion of the ATU has these 5 wires connected, and each runs the length of the boat. One up the centre line and 2 either side of that, the furthest from centre is at about waterline. They meet again near the bow, but not connected that end.
This might be more correctly called a counterpoise, but it works as well as any other method tried, including sintered bronze plate (I didn't bolt to hull, but immersed for the trial), loads of Cu tape, keel connection, braid in water, and other ideas.
 
Copper foil is used to connect the tuner as close as possible to the aerial. The strongest SSB signal is from metal boats because the ground makes up half the aerial. We know an American boat who used copper foil in the bilges and it's signal was as strong as a metal boat.
 
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philmarks said:
I have a steel boat

.
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I do not think copper is needed in your case,

I also have a steel boat and I use a very short piece of alternator cable from the ATU bolted to to a nearby hull frame and this produces a very good signal. I have no current running through the hull at all so I had to put a resistor on the ground wire from my Icom 802 to stop it leaking current to my hull
 
john_q said:
I do not think copper is needed in your case,

I also have a steel boat and I use a very short piece of alternator cable from the ATU bolted to to a nearby hull frame and this produces a very good signal. I have no current running through the hull at all so I had to put a resistor on the ground wire from my Icom 802 to stop it leaking current to my hull
Click to expand...
Why resisters instead of capacitors ? I got a set from some site in the uk, yachtcom or something? Works great, steel hull must be as good a ground plate as you could hope for.
 
Rogershaw said:
What size capacitors did you use and where did you fit them, in the ATU ground and/or the radio ground. I have and old Icom 700 and Icom ATU.
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Can't remember what size, it came for an online sailing store which sells ssb stuff, went in series with the cable between the ATU ground and the hull so no DC connection between antenna ground & hull.
 
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