17 feet will make a very good antenna on 10 meters, you can count that band 
useless with that ground.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Howard, W A 9 Y B W" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 10:51 AM
Subject: Re: mfj 931


> Tom,
>
> In my last e-mail, I failed to ask you why you needed to go out 17 feet to
> your ground rod.  As Lloyd said, the shorter the ground the better.  Just 
> a
> foot or so outside the building is fine.  The power company installs their
> ground right up practically against the building.
>
> Howard
> W A 9 Y B W
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Tom Brennan" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 7:48 AM
> Subject: Re: mfj 931
>
>
>> Howard, my concern was about having the ground wire actually in the 
>> ground
>> for
>> all that length.  It would require my using an insulated wire and I had
>> read
>> somewhere that you can't do that for grounding.  Is that not the case?
>>
>> There is grass all the way to the place I'd have to use but since they
>> want the
>> wire two or three inches deep and also want me to relandscape the area
>> that I
>> dig I guess I'm a little iffie about it <g>.
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>> Tom Brennan  KD5VIJ, CCC-A/SLP
>> web page http://titan.sfasu.edu/~g_brennantg/sonicpage.html