<div>Amigo João obrigado por ter encontrado este post pois temos tanto falado aqui nas terras e muita gente não sabe medir a <u>respectiva</u> terra.</div><div> </div><div>(Nota este email não foi escrito com o novo acordo ortográfico)he..he</div>
<div><br> </div><div class="gmail_quote">2012/9/24 João Costa > CT1FBF <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ct1fbf@gmail.com" target="_blank">ct1fbf@gmail.com</a>></span><br><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid" class="gmail_quote">
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<h1 style="margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;color:rgb(46,40,36);line-height:1.2;font-family:"PT Sans",sans-serif;font-size:30px">How to measure Ground Conductivity</h1>
<div style="color:rgb(68,68,68);line-height:25px;font-family:"PT Sans",sans-serif;font-size:16px"><br>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625"><img style="margin: 0px 15px 10px 0px; float: left; display: inline; min-height: auto; max-width: 100%;" title="Measuring tape" alt="Picture of a Measuring tape" src="http://www.dh1tw.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Massband-e1341236379645.jpg" width="149" height="99"></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625">Over the last years I spent a lot of time simulating antennas. One annoyance I encountered over and over was the unavailablity of values for ground conductivity and the relative permittivity. Two figures which have quite an impact on the antenna performance, especially on vertical antennas. This finally led to the conclusion that both figures need to be measured. In early 2012 I built a measurement kit and finally determined ground conductivity and relative permittivity at our contest station <a style="color:rgb(255,0,0);text-decoration:none" href="http://www.ed1r.com/" target="_blank">ED1R </a>.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625"><span></span></p>
<h2 style="margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;color:rgb(46,40,36);line-height:1.2;font-size:27px">Motivation</h2>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625">Antenna literature only provides a few generic curves for the estimation of conductivity and the relative permittivity of soil (see below). Being unsure about the soil’s quality can mean a difference up to the factor 1000 (city – vs rice paddy). While in practice you’ll have a rough idea if you are in the desert or rather close to the sea, everything in between is far from being clear. The better the data you feed into the simulation, the closer your results match in reality.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; min-height: auto; max-width: 100%;" title="General Soil conductivity graph" alt="" src="http://www.dh1tw.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/soil_conductivity.gif" width="348" height="467"><br>
<img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; min-height: auto; max-width: 100%;" title="Dielectric Constant" alt="" src="http://www.dh1tw.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/soil_dielectric_constant.gif" width="380" height="381"></p>
<h2 style="margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;color:rgb(46,40,36);line-height:1.2;font-size:27px">Some theory</h2>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625">Two conductors (metal rods) with known length and diameter are pushed in parallel into the soil. At the top, the impedance is measured. The setup is considered as a two-wire line with an open end. The impedance between the open ends (located in the soil) is transformed as a function of its geometrical properties and the mediums (here: soil) porperties along the wire. Since the geometrical properties are known, the mediums properties can be calculated with a bit of math.<br>
Fortunately, I could base my measurements on the intensive work of <a style="color:rgb(255,0,0);text-decoration:none" href="http://www.technik.dhbw-ravensburg.de/~lau/" target="_blank">Hardy, DL1GLH</a>who published a detailed summary of his research paper <a style="color:rgb(255,0,0);text-decoration:none" href="http://www.technik.dhbw-ravensburg.de/~lau/groundconductivity.html" target="_blank">Measurement of the ground conductivity and relative permittivity with high frequency using a open wire line (OWL)</a> on his website. If you are interested in the math behind this, please check out his website.</p>
<h2 style="margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;color:rgb(46,40,36);line-height:1.2;font-size:27px">Online Calculator</h2>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625">While I had to to calculate the results in Matlab, Hardy recently published an <a style="color:rgb(255,0,0);text-decoration:none" href="http://www.technik.dhbw-ravensburg.de/~lau/gc.html" target="_blank">online ground conductivity calculator</a> which does all the hard work for you. Therefore a Matlab license isn’t required anymore.</p>
<h2 style="margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;color:rgb(46,40,36);line-height:1.2;font-size:27px">Setup</h2>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625">I measured the impedance with my <a style="color:rgb(255,0,0);text-decoration:none" href="http://www.sdr-kits.net/VNWA/VNWA_Description.html" target="_blank">DG8SAQ VNWA3 Vector Network Analyzer</a>, my good old MacBookPro and a homebrew two-wire line (see pictures below). Once the impedances where measured and written down, I calculated the conductivity (sigma) and relative permittivity (epsilon) with Mathworks <a style="color:rgb(255,0,0);text-decoration:none" href="http://www.mathworks.com/" target="_blank">Matlab</a>.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; min-height: auto; max-width: 100%;" title="Ground conductivity measurement kit" alt="" src="http://www.dh1tw.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/IMG_0355-e1341340550901.jpg" width="600" height="450"></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625">Two square bars are functioning as a guide to ensure that the metal rods are pushed in an equal distance into the earth.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; min-height: auto; max-width: 100%;" title="Ground conductivity measurement kit - ready to be pushed into the soil" alt="" src="http://www.dh1tw.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/IMG_0359-e1341340744541.jpg" width="600" height="450"></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625">Once the metal rods are pushed into earth, the square bar guides are removed. This is done by removing the nuts. The upper square bar is then replaced by the connecting bridge. The nuts are tightened and the VNWA is connected with a coax cable to the bridge.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; min-height: auto; max-width: 100%;" title="Ground conductivity measurement kit connected to VNWA" alt="" src="http://www.dh1tw.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/IMG_0357-e1341341227388.jpg" width="600" height="450"></p>
<h2 style="margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;color:rgb(46,40,36);line-height:1.2;font-size:27px">Best practice</h2>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625">There are no perfect length, distance and diameter for the two-wire line, but when you create your own measurement kit you might find the following advices helpful. They are the outcome of my experiments:</p>
<ul style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px">
<li style="margin:0px 0px 10px 20px;padding:0px 0px 0px 15px;list-style-type:none;word-wrap:break-word">Avoid rods longer than 300mm. It’s quite difficult to penetrate agricultural soil for more than 300mm without using much force.</li>
<li style="margin:0px 0px 10px 20px;padding:0px 0px 0px 15px;list-style-type:none;word-wrap:break-word">Just use your foot or hand to push the rods into the soil. Don’t use a hammer or stone to push the wire-line into the ground. It is crucial that they remain exactly parallel!</li>
<li style="margin:0px 0px 10px 20px;padding:0px 0px 0px 15px;list-style-type:none;word-wrap:break-word">If the soil is too hard, try to push the rods in a 45deg angel into the soil</li>
<li style="margin:0px 0px 10px 20px;padding:0px 0px 0px 15px;list-style-type:none;word-wrap:break-word">5 – 10mm diameter of the rods is a good trade-off.</li>
<li style="margin:0px 0px 10px 20px;padding:0px 0px 0px 15px;list-style-type:none;word-wrap:break-word">Aluminium might be too soft. Try to use steel</li>
<li style="margin:0px 0px 10px 20px;padding:0px 0px 0px 15px;list-style-type:none;word-wrap:break-word">A distance of 50 – 100mm between the parallel rods should work well</li>
<li style="margin:0px 0px 10px 20px;padding:0px 0px 0px 15px;list-style-type:none;word-wrap:break-word">Impedance should be located between 30 Ohm … 500 Ohm</li></ul>
<h2 style="margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;color:rgb(46,40,36);line-height:1.2;font-size:27px">Performing the Measurements</h2>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625">I performed the measurements at two different spots. Both spots are agriculturally used fields. Spot1 is a household garden and spot2 is a grain field. Find below some pictures taken during the measurements.</p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; min-height: auto; max-width: 100%;" title="Measurement Points at ED1R" alt="" src="http://www.dh1tw.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/ed1r_ground_measurements-e1341270471367.jpg" width="600" height="330"></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; min-height: auto; max-width: 100%;" title="DH1TW measuring impedance of the ground" alt="" src="http://www.dh1tw.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/10122011-032-e1341267903529.jpg" width="600" height="800"></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; min-height: auto; max-width: 100%;" title="Measuring ground conductivity VNWA + MacbookPro" alt="" src="http://www.dh1tw.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/10122011-031-e1341269650206.jpg" width="600" height="449"></p>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; min-height: auto; max-width: 100%;" title="Probe with VNWA to measure ground conductivity" alt="" src="http://www.dh1tw.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/10122011-034-e1341269702176.jpg" width="600" height="449"></p>
<h2 style="margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;color:rgb(46,40,36);line-height:1.2;font-size:27px">Results</h2>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625">Find below the results of the measurements taken at the two spots</p>
<h3 style="margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px;color:rgb(46,40,36);line-height:1.2;font-size:24px">Results Garden (Spot1)</h3>
<table style="font-size:13px" border="0" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="5">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th align="middle">Frequency [MHz]</th>
<th align="middle">Impedance [Ohm]</th>
<th align="middle">Conductivity [mS]</th>
<th align="middle">Permittivity</th></tr>
<tr align="middle">
<td>1.85</td>
<td>236.3-j51.4</td>
<td>12.2</td>
<td>26.6</td></tr>
<tr align="middle">
<td>3.60</td>
<td>208-j66.1</td>
<td>13.1</td>
<td>21.8</td></tr>
<tr align="middle">
<td>7.1</td>
<td>170.5-j74.6</td>
<td>14.5</td>
<td>17.4</td></tr>
<tr align="middle">
<td>14.2</td>
<td>125.7-j72.3</td>
<td>16.7</td>
<td>14.2</td></tr>
<tr align="middle">
<td>21.1</td>
<td>96.5-j60.6</td>
<td>19.1</td>
<td>13.3</td></tr>
<tr align="middle">
<td>28.2</td>
<td>85.7-j40.3</td>
<td>22.9</td>
<td>11</td></tr></tbody></table>
<h3 style="margin:0px 0px 10px;padding:0px;color:rgb(46,40,36);line-height:1.2;font-size:24px">Results Grain field (Spot2)</h3>
<table style="font-size:13px" border="0" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="5">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th align="middle">Frequency [MHz]</th>
<th align="middle">Impedance [Ohm]</th>
<th align="middle">Conductivity [mS]</th>
<th align="middle">Permittivity</th></tr>
<tr align="middle">
<td>1.85</td>
<td>338.8-j157.0</td>
<td>7.3</td>
<td>33.4</td></tr>
<tr align="middle">
<td>3.60</td>
<td>249.3-j161.8</td>
<td>8.4</td>
<td>28</td></tr>
<tr align="middle">
<td>7.1</td>
<td>167.3-j138.6</td>
<td>10.4</td>
<td>22.8</td></tr>
<tr align="middle">
<td>14.2</td>
<td>105.5-j99.2</td>
<td>13.7</td>
<td>18.3</td></tr>
<tr align="middle">
<td>21.1</td>
<td>79.5-j72.3</td>
<td>16.8</td>
<td>16.2</td></tr>
<tr align="middle">
<td>28.2</td>
<td>66.0-j48.6</td>
<td>21</td>
<td>14.8</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; min-height: auto; max-width: 100%;" title="Chart showing the results of the conductivity and permittivity measured at ED1R" alt="" src="http://www.dh1tw.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/chart_ground_conductivity_ed1r1.png" width="590" height="391"></p>
<h2 style="margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;color:rgb(46,40,36);line-height:1.2;font-size:27px">Discussion</h2>
<ul style="margin:0px;padding:0px 0px 15px">
<li style="margin:0px 0px 10px 20px;padding:0px 0px 0px 15px;list-style-type:none;word-wrap:break-word">When comparing the results with the charts taken out of the standard broadcast-engineering literature, they seem to be plausible. Considering that fertilizers are applied to to both fields it is reasonable to find the values close to <i>Rich agricultural land</i>.</li>
<li style="margin:0px 0px 10px 20px;padding:0px 0px 0px 15px;list-style-type:none;word-wrap:break-word">I suppose that more fertilizers are applied to the garden, which could explain the better conductivity.</li>
<li style="margin:0px 0px 10px 20px;padding:0px 0px 0px 15px;list-style-type:none;word-wrap:break-word">The measured conductivity & relative permittivity explain the good results we achieve on the lowbands during contests. We always have the impression to be loud on the low bands.</li>
<li style="margin:0px 0px 10px 20px;padding:0px 0px 0px 15px;list-style-type:none;word-wrap:break-word">Conductivity & relative permittivity can vary (significantly) between parcels of land. The two measurements are an indication but don’t paint the full picture. Consider that the area most influential is the nearfield and then the farfield up to a distance of 10 Lambda.</li>
<li style="margin:0px 0px 10px 20px;padding:0px 0px 0px 15px;list-style-type:none;word-wrap:break-word">Soil penetration is also an important fact which needs to be considered, especially with <i>bad</i> ground. Depending on the conductivity and frequency, the current can penetrate up to 100 meter deep the underlying ground. Make sure you know the various layers of soil you are standing on.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;color:rgb(46,40,36);line-height:1.2;font-size:27px">Conclusion</h2>
<p style="margin:0px 0px 25px;padding:0px;text-align:justify;line-height:1.5625">The two-wire method is an easy way to determine the conductivity and relative permittivity of soil. With amateur means, fairly precise results can be achieved. Measurements should be taken at various points since the ground characteristics can change significantly between two parcels on land. The soil quality at ED1R is close to <i>Rich agricultural land</i>. Now further antenna simulations can be improved by using the exactly determined values.</p>
</div>
<div><br></div>-- <br>António Matias
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<div>CT1FFU - CR5A </div>
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