Dry Weather - How's Your Station Ground?

We're undergoing another sunny, dry summer in the UK.  Unsurprisingly, we're all very happy about that!

But there are problems associated with dry weather, and one revealed itself in an unexpected way.

Are your grounding points moist enough?  Image: W8JI

A few weeks ago, I threw together a simple crystal set for the kids. The primary coil uses the station ground, connected by crocodile clip. It worked a treat until, a few days ago, it went completely dead.

Having re-soldered all the connections, it was still dead.

Hmm.  I wondered whether the ground system had dried up in the hot weather.  So, I dumped a copious amount of water in the ground at the earthing point.  Within a few minutes, the crystal set was working again!

So, it pays to keep your station grounding moist in hot weather, especially if you live somewhere like the UK, where we don't expect it to ever be that dry!