Why would you ever use steel and aluminum as part of your ground system?!? I guess conductivity, dissimilar metal corrosion and rust weren't concerns in this antenna system. There aren't nearly enough radials under that antenna to be efficient, plus with that galvanized steel pipe and galvanized electricians strap you have a poor ground. Proper grounding and radials under any vertical antenna is the other half of the antenna. In this case this antenna is very very lossy. I guarantee this vertical radiates equally poorly in all directions.
I live near the river. Groundwater is shallow. In the future I will add more radials. However, the antenna works well right now.
I too might be a little concerned about the longevity of the ground system, but the OP placed pretty high in the CQ 160 Meter Worldwide DX contest. I doubt he would make a video promoting an antenna that didn't work.
Just click on the CC button, it is for Closed Caption so you can read sub titles in English. 73 and enjoy. Larry
To hard to drive a pipe / ground rod? Did you use water? Helps tons! Here the ground is so wet now i can drive a 8ft by hand! Probably could drive a 10 ft because it so easy! Just keep a light flow of water into the hole and pull it up often. =]
I think he must be using what is available to him, and maybe budget, kinda like the original hams did in the early years and some do today, sometimes we learn more when we have the need to scrounge around for material. Experimentation.
