Sycamaore trees are conductive?

As Ivan correctly pointed out, trees carry liquids (lymphatic channels) from roots all the way up to leaves, so yes, a tree is definitely conductive, then ok it depends from the genre, some trees are "less conductive" than others, but in general you should consider them to be conductive and to have effect on RF, not just that, some people even went all the way and used trees as antennas

https://we-make-money-not-art.com/tree_antenna/

https://w5jgv.com/tree_antenna/

http://play.fallows.ca/wp/radio/ham-radio/tree-aerial-another-liquid-antenna/

sure, not the most efficient antenna around, yet when it comes to trees and "regular" antennas, the tree may (and will) influence the antenna, that's also why, when it comes to hang a wire antenna to a tree, it's a good idea to use some ropes to keep the antenna at some distance and not at direct contact with the tree (branches or trunk)

That said, happy to hear about your lady friend !

Hi Harry,

living trees contain quite much water and some minerals brought from the roots. They probably behave like a resistor in parralel with a capacitor (relative permitivity of water is cca 80!). They probably cause changes in the antenna directivity and some losses - IMHO 10 dB of attenuation fits.

Perfectly dry wood should not matter much.

On the other hand, big trees make fairly good "green masts" for wire antennas.     

VBR from Ivan

Hi guys,
I have read several places that trees have surprisingly little attenuation. Until Friday last I have a really huge, overgrown, sycamore tree in my back garden. So huge that it shadowed the whole garden, grew over the house and the root system is under the house. The trees also (2 of them) totally surrounded my HF antenna (inverted V). But trees do not attenuate much? Or do they?

The kommun cut down the trees last Friday and now I have seen loads of changes. The BBC world service (my reference station on 12MHz) has gotten more than 10dB stronger, according to the spectrum analyser. It looks as though I can put the multi-band antenna back again and become active on all HF bands. Looks like the world is getting better for me. I hope to be active this weekend on 14MHz, and maybe 18MHz. Will have to see the state of the bands.

Another benefit is that the south-facing window of my office/shack/man-cave now has a 100% clear view of the southern sky. I have a 100W solar panel inside the window and the accumulators are already tip-top full. I have a true sine-wave 1000W inverter, and also a home-made 400W inverter on the batteries. Running 24V system. I only have 30 A/h batteries, but they will power my freezer for a couple of hours in the event of a power outage. I hope to increase the capacity to 200 A/h industrial batteries shortly, just waiting for them to become available.

Also, if you wonder why I have not been on the forum very often it is because i have a lady-friend.

Very best regards from Harry - sm0vpo