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Re: Substrate heating



In a message dated 1/5/2001 00:51:43 Pacific Standard Time, 
Aquatic-Plants-Owner at actwin_com writes:

> >My supporting observations come from HAM radio operators
>  >that conclude plants grow better around a working radio
>  >antenna.  In marginal climates for ivy, when the antenna is
>  >used, ivy grows up the antenna.  If you don't use the antenna
>  >for a year, the ivy dies.  When you use the antenna again,
>  >the ivy comes back.

That's an interesting observation.  I've been a Ham Radio Operator since 
1955, and have had a lot of towers and antennas in the ensuing years.  One of 
the fears you always have when you're operating a big tower is lightning 
strikes.  The lower the resistance of the soil with the ground system, the 
more elaborate the ground system, the less the risk of a disastrous lightning 
bolt being attracted to your antenna.  (You learn these things after the 
first time you take a lightning strike and it scares the mulm out of you.)  
Therefore, I have usually made sure the soil around the tower is kept moist 
at all times, particularly during a dry spell.  In fact, there's an 
indentation in the ground under my current antenna tower where I occasionally 
allow the garden hose to trickle and saturate the soil.  Naturally, plants 
around my antennas do tend to grow nicely, but I think it's because they get 
special attention to watering.  I wonder if that might not explain the 
phenomena rather than an RF field during periods of transmitting?