Your Farm's Soil Electrical Conductivity

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Your Farm's Soil Electrical Conductivity

Mimi and Steve
Fellow radiators:

To Find Your Soil's Electric Conductivity

1) Go to: http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app

2) Click on the big green button, "Start WSS".

3) Follow step 1 of "Three Basic Steps" on the first page.

Typing your address under "Quick Navigation" is the

easiest method. Remember to spell out street, circle...

When using the + and - zoom feature, click on + or -.

Then place the cursor at the point you wish to be the

center of your next map and click.

4) Click on "view".

5) Click AOI tab which is just above the map and outline

(draw a box

around) your Fresnel Zone.

6) Follow the second step "View/Explore" by clicking

the "Soil Map" tab.

7) Click the "Soil Data Explorer" tab.

8) Click the "Soil Properties and Qualities" box which is

just above the map.

9) Click the "Soil Chemical Properties" box.

10) Click the "Electrical Conductivity" box.

11) Toward the bottom of the page, locate "Top Depth" and

enter 1.

For the bottom depth enter 144 for 14 Mhz, 360 for 1.8 Mhz.

12) Click inches.

13) Click "View Rating".

14) In the table, read in the column "Rating (millimhos

per centimeter)".

15) Use the millimhos/centimeter number as mS/m.

Thus, 17 millimhos becomes 17 mS/m. This is the

electrical conductivity of your Fresnel Zone.

16) This page is printable from your screen to your printer.

Steve, NU7T
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Re: Your Farm's Soil Electrical Conductivity

Bill VanAlstyne W5WVO
Steve wrote:

> 15) Use the millimhos/centimeter number as mS/m.
> Thus, 17 millimhos becomes 17 mS/m. This is the
> electrical conductivity of your Fresnel Zone.

Given that 1 mho = 1 Siemens, then how does 17 mmho/cm (given by the tool)
equate to 17 mS/meter? The denominator unit is different. And is the distance
linear or area? Obviously this is just my ignorance about this, but I don't
get it. Somebody explain please?

Bill W5WVO

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Re: Your Farm's Soil Electrical Conductivity

David F. Reed
In reply to this post by Mimi and Steve
Mine gets a reading of 0 millimhos/cm (zero); what's up with that?
(sounds infinitely resistive)...

--Dave, W5SV


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RE: Re: Your Farm's Soil Electrical Conductivity

Darwin, Keith
Mine too.  Apparently my vertical won't work and I won't be able to work
FM5 using 10 watts (like I did last night).  I'll have to take the
vertical down and put up a dipole.

Either that or I didn't do the tool right :-)

- Keith N1AS -
- K2 5411.ssb.100 -
- K3 711 -

-----Original Message-----
Mine gets a reading of 0 millimhos/cm (zero); what's up with that?
(sounds infinitely resistive)...

--Dave, W5SV
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Re: OT Your Farm's Soil Electrical Conductivity

David F. Reed
Keith,

that is my "problem" as well; just last night I worked ZS6CCY on 75m
with my vertical, and could hardly hear him on the dipole.

In short, it seems the opposite of what I would expect, since in the
last 4 months, I have worked over 90 countries on 80, including many in
Europe, Africa, Oceania, Asia, South and Central America.

So I am figuring I just don't understand something, or I put out enough
radials to compensate and am not just heating the worms up.

73 de Dave, W5SV

Darwin, Keith wrote:
> Mine too.  Apparently my vertical won't work and I won't be able to work
> FM5 using 10 watts (like I did last night).  I'll have to take the
> vertical down and put up a dipole.
>
> Either that or I didn't do the tool right :-)
>  
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Re: Re: OT Your Farm's Soil Electrical Conductivity

M0XDF
you lot think you've got problems - the survey doesn't even cover the  
UK - I'm not sure I've even got soil. And whatever I have got, I've  
only got about 75x40 feet of it!
--
Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number  
of
hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo,
Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.
-H. Jackson Brown, Jr., writer

On 22 Apr 2008, at 15:56, David F. Reed wrote:

> Keith,
>
> that is my "problem" as well; just last night I worked ZS6CCY on 75m  
> with my vertical, and could hardly hear him on the dipole.
>
> In short, it seems the opposite of what I would expect, since in the  
> last 4 months, I have worked over 90 countries on 80, including many  
> in Europe, Africa, Oceania, Asia, South and Central America.
>
> So I am figuring I just don't understand something, or I put out  
> enough radials to compensate and am not just heating the worms up.
>
> 73 de Dave, W5SV
>
> Darwin, Keith wrote:
>> Mine too.  Apparently my vertical won't work and I won't be able to  
>> work
>> FM5 using 10 watts (like I did last night).  I'll have to take the
>> vertical down and put up a dipole.
>>
>> Either that or I didn't do the tool right :-)
>>
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Re: Your Farm's Soil Electrical Conductivity

Stephen  Prior
In reply to this post by Bill VanAlstyne W5WVO
I hope nobody minds....because...

I'm jumping in here without having really followed this thread, but I can
comment on this.

Bill is right that 17 mmho/cm is not equal to 17 mS/m, as you say it should
be /cm, not /m.

The unit is confusing however, and bears no relation to a per cm or per m at
all in the usual way that we think of these units.

It starts with the definition of resistivity which has the units of ohm
metres.  Many people interpret that as ohms/m, but it's not- that would be a
resistance per unit length and is entirely different.

Since conductivity is the reciprocal of resistivity, the units of
conductivity become /ohm/m or mho/m or S/m, to use the SI unit.  As I said
above, it's just a unit and does not imply a 'per unit length' at all.

One formula for conductivity would be:

Conductivity = (conductance x length)/area

And it is simply the fact that we have a length divided by an area that
gives us the /m bit of the unit.  The advantage of using the concept of
conductivity is that it yields a number which does not refer to a particular
sample of material of a certain size, but refers only to a property of the
material itself.  Rearranging the formula above then allows you to find the
conductance of a particular sized sample of that material/soil whatever..

Anyway, the aforementioned conversion is wrong- a slip of the keys no doubt!

Hope that helps

73 Stephen G4SJP  


On 22/04/2008 14:59, "Bill W5WVO" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Steve wrote:
>
>> 15) Use the millimhos/centimeter number as mS/m.
>> Thus, 17 millimhos becomes 17 mS/m. This is the
>> electrical conductivity of your Fresnel Zone.
>
> Given that 1 mho = 1 Siemens, then how does 17 mmho/cm (given by the tool)
> equate to 17 mS/meter? The denominator unit is different. And is the distance
> linear or area? Obviously this is just my ignorance about this, but I don't
> get it. Somebody explain please?
>
> Bill W5WVO


On 22/04/2008 14:59, "Bill W5WVO" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Steve wrote:
>
>> 15) Use the millimhos/centimeter number as mS/m.
>> Thus, 17 millimhos becomes 17 mS/m. This is the
>> electrical conductivity of your Fresnel Zone.
>
> Given that 1 mho = 1 Siemens, then how does 17 mmho/cm (given by the tool)
> equate to 17 mS/meter? The denominator unit is different. And is the distance
> linear or area? Obviously this is just my ignorance about this, but I don't
> get it. Somebody explain please?
>
> Bill W5WVO
>
> _______________________________________________
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>



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Re: Your Farm's Soil Electrical Conductivity

Phil Kane-2
On 4/22/2008 10:48 AM, Stephen Prior wrote:

> I'm jumping in here without having really followed this thread, but I can
> comment on this.
>
> Bill is right that 17 mmho/cm is not equal to 17 mS/m, as you say it should
> be /cm, not /m.
>
> The unit is confusing however, and bears no relation to a per cm or per m at
> all in the usual way that we think of these units.

Those of us broadcast engineers in the US who have had the (mis)fortune
to wrestle with the charts and graphs of FCC Rules Part 73 Subpart A -
formerly called "Appendix I - Standards of Good Engineering Practice" -
will remember that the map of ground conductivity used to compute the
groundwave field intensity of AM broadcast stations was found on the
infamous "Chart M-3" and the conductivity was expressed in mmho/meter.

The range was in the single digits over most of the U.S.  A ground
conductivity of 8 mmho/m was the default value for "decent" soil.
Swamps and marshes (the best sites for AM stations) was up in the 20s,
and pure rock was down about 1.

Thankfully, those charts are no longer printed or stored in the online
Rules and computerized studies for AM antennas are required nowadays.

  --
73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
Elecraft K2/100   s/n 5402

VP - General Counsel & Engineering Manager
CSI Telecommunications, Inc. - Consulting Engineers
San Francisco, CA - Beaverton, OR
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OT W4RNL SK

David Cutter
Forwarding this to the Elecraft list, I know many of you will have known LB
or at least his work.
David
G3UNA
>From the Antennex list:




====================================================
Folks:

This is the saddest announcement we have had to make:

It was discovered this morning that LB Cebik, W4RNL
had passed away.

He was a friend to us all and will leave behind
a great void. His beloved wife, Jean passed several
years before and he missed her greatly.

He was my friend and associate for 10+ years and I
shall always remember him for his warmth and kindness.

A tribute to this "kind and gentle giant" shall
appear in my column in the next issue of antenneX.

Jack L. Stone, Publisher
antenneX Online Magazine
http://www.antennex.com
[hidden email]
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Re: OT W4RNL SK

w2bvh
Sad news indeed. Every time I emailed him for advice his replies were
well reasoned, to the point, accurate and prompt.

My current 6 M antenna is a W4RNL design and the performance matches his
predictions so well is scary.

Someone who knows what he's talking about and is more than willing to
share it with others is a rare individual indeed.

Condolences to his friends and family.

The list of ham friends and admirers is probably longer than he realized.


--Lenny W2BVH




David Cutter wrote:

> Forwarding this to the Elecraft list, I know many of you will have
> known LB or at least his work.
> David
> G3UNA
>> From the Antennex list:
>
>
>
>
> ====================================================
> Folks:
>
> This is the saddest announcement we have had to make:
>
> It was discovered this morning that LB Cebik, W4RNL
> had passed away.
>
> He was a friend to us all and will leave behind
> a great void. His beloved wife, Jean passed several
> years before and he missed her greatly.
>
> He was my friend and associate for 10+ years and I
> shall always remember him for his warmth and kindness.
>
> A tribute to this "kind and gentle giant" shall
> appear in my column in the next issue of antenneX.
>
> Jack L. Stone, Publisher
> antenneX Online Magazine
> http://www.antennex.com
> [hidden email]
> _______________________________________________
> Broadcast mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.antennex.com/mailman/listinfo/broadcast
> Unsubscribe, send to:
> [hidden email]
> _______________________________________________
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> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
>

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