I have had it with the non-electric tape fence. Last year I replaced
the top tape, and made it the only hot wire. The two lower strands
are grounded to the earth. The top strand is hot right out of the
box, but less hot as you get farther from the charger. There is
*nowhere* where it touches anything other than insulators. There is
nowhere where it sparks in the dark. All I can come up with is our
dry, sandy soil just not conducting well enough.
The far end of the woods gets no charge at all. None. Louise has
discovered it's a fake, and it's only a matter of time until she
decides to let herself out. For now, she is content to lean on it and
stretch it out.
So, I decided to start with a better ground. I have just driven three
eight-foot copper ground rods into the ground, 10' apart, in the shade
behind the barn where the ground stays a bit more moist. I'm heading
out to get new insulated wire to link the rods together, and to link
them back to the box.
I also ordered insulators that hold the fence 6" off the trees, rather
than 3", and I ordered new polywire to once again replace the top
strand - about 1500'.
The two bottom strands are disconnected from the charger and grounded
to a 6' rod in the earth. But Louise leans on all three strands at
once and doesn't appear to get so much as a tingle. My question is,
should I link the non-electric strands all the way back to the 3-rod
ground, and back to the box? Or do I jsut do 3-rod ground-to-box, and
un-electrified lower tape strands to earth?
Nancy DeMarco (electrical anti-savant)
Mason, NH
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