Oh and PS – hoist it up high on an insulated pole. This works by measuring the E field between the plate and ground – a metal pole will just short out this field!
73s

As has been noted there is a lot of noise in ground connected systems. I would suggest using an E-field probe. There are various designs around but its very small and consists of a 15 x 15cm copper PCB panel connected to the gate of a high impedance FET amplifier. This is followed by a simple emitter follower that produces a low impedance output into a regular laptop sound card. No tuning requires as this is a totally broad band E-Field amplifier. I use the SAQ Panoramic Receiver software which has excelent digital filtering to 50Hz and covers from DC to about 22Khz. There are versions that can cover higher if your sound card can handle fast sample rates.

I hope this helps and I was getting very good copy last summer and all ready and waiting for this one on Sunday.
73s G4BIP

Good evening Rich, have a try ! if you do try, you don’t know. Earth probes antenna (epa)works even when the soil is dry. I have done tests during summers, in RX and TX mode, even on 8.25kHz (yes 8270 Hertz). For more information come on https://www.facebook.com/groups/earthprobes there is a files section with plenty of pdf about the topic.
Good luck, and keep us informed.
73’s Jean Marie F5VLB

“two electrodes of 2m long buried underground, 100m apart and oriented 285°” That’s a good idea, does the ground need to be fairly dry for that to work? I’m assuming your electrodes are measuring the small potential difference created by the SAQ E-Field component. I have tried a 10m circular loop of insulated wire placed on the ground and it works well for some VLF transmitters but not SAQ (because SAQ M-Field is horizontal).

I will experiment with your setup next time SAQ transmits, I can easily get an electrode (Ground Rod) separation of 25m minimum.