An experimental investigation into the behaviour of the staked antenna for surface electric field measurement

Experiments have been conducted to demonstrate which probe configuration is correct for surface impedance measurements, i.e., to assess the performance of an insulated straight wire and a staked wire antenna lying on the surface of the Earth. The response of these two probe configurations to a quasi-static magnetic field was monitored in a series of scale model experiments in the laboratory. It is demonstrated that a staked antenna does respond to a quasi-static magnetic field and so cannot be regarded as providing a purely electric field response during surface impedance measurements.<>