But doesn't it have to be above ground? Yes the moon is dry and probably the poorest conducting dirt there is, But just like on Earth it can't be laying on the ground yes?

Good question...

Even if the ground was a perfect reflector and conductor, then the antenna would only have to be 19" above the ground at 2 meters. Next consider that the moon is rock and extremely dry... And rock has about 1/1000 the conductivity of moist soil... So where the "true" reflection in the ground of the moon is surely many feet down. So sitting it on the ground" of the moon is probably 99% as effective as trying to hang it 19" up.

Robert Bruninga wrote:

BUT one easy way to get gain is to use just a long

coaxial gain

cable. I think it takes about 22 feet of coaxial dipole elements at 2 meters to give about 6 dB of gain. So

laying down

6 dB gain segments on the rock of the moon is as easy as unrolling a spool of cable. Unrolling 8 of these with

the right

spacing could yield about 17 dB.

Of course this woiuld only point straight up, so it

would need

to be on a moon base in the middle of the earth facing

side.

But since there is a lot of interest in moon bases near

the

poles where there might be water, then a similar array

of layed

down coaxial cable arrays could be phased horizontally

to point

at earth. Actually, just about any direction can be

obtained

with the right spacing.

ONLY problem of course is there has to be someone with

legs to

roll out the cables.

Just a thought. Bob, WB4APR

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