Ed, I find your idea of a salt water ground plane very intriguing. I imagine the salts used would involve more than just table salt, and the chemistry would have to be checked and adjusted regularly, similar to a swimming pool. The problem of stratification could easily be solved with circulator pumps, which would be turned off just prior to actual use (those of you near fault lines might take advantage of natural agitation, your salt water pools would be "shaken, not stirred"). : )
On a related note, does anyone have any experience doing EMC scans below ground? It seems that the earth would be about the lowest cost shielding material available. Perhaps an updated and enlarged version of the early pioneers "soddie" (sod hut) might be just the ticket. It might even incorporate a salt water ground plane. A side benefit would be that EMC engineers might gain some useful exercise by swimming a few laps at lunch time (how many laps around the turntable/raft equals one mile?). : ) Scott Lacey -----Original Message----- From: Price, Ed [SMTP:ed.pr...@cubic.com] Sent: Monday, August 02, 1999 5:35 PM To: 'Arun Kaore'; 'emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org' Subject: RE: cost effective EMC facility Arun: I was just struck by what you said about "setup a Sea Plane or a salt water based site" . Has anyone ever set up an OATS using salt water as the ground plane? Talk about excellent surface smoothness, easy to level and cheap material, plus simple repair! (Uhh, could we say it fixes itself?) Just what conductivity would be enough? Could we get enough conductivity before we reach salt saturation? I suppose the upper limit on surface area would be when we get to the point of the wind causing surface ripples. Or gravitational tides. Turntables might be a lot cheaper, too. Just a thin raft that floats. Seriously, has anyone tried this for an OATS? (I seem to recall the US Navy had a really big ship simulator here in San Diego, where they placed scale models of ships on a sheet-steel "sea" in order to model HF wire antennas.) Regards, Ed :-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-): -):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-) Ed Price ed.pr...@cubic.com Electromagnetic Compatibility Lab Cubic Defense Systems San Diego, CA. USA 619-505-2780 (Voice) 619-505-1502 (Fax) Military & Avionics EMC Services Is Our Specialty Shake-Bake-Shock - Metrology - Reliability Analysis :-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-): -):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-) --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to majord...@ieee.org with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to ed.pr...@cubic.com, jim_bac...@monarch.com, ri...@sdd.hp.com, or roger.volgst...@compaq.com (the list administrators).