Lets mount my Rangemaster at say 30 feet on a wood pole. My CB whip is installed. Then I crazily (is that a word?) connect 25 feet of wire to the ground terminal and bring it down the pole but I don't connect it to ground or anything for that matter. Since it is not connected is it a ground lead?
The downward lead would form a dipole antenna combined with the CB whip so both would comprise the antenna. The 3 meter rule would be a problem if interpreted this way.
Neil
That is exactly what this guy did: http://transition.fcc.gov/eb/FieldNotices/2003/DOC-313358A1.html
What Neil Radio8Z mentioned is known also to me, but it wouldn't be known to a typical hobbyist trying to comply with 15.219.
That "innocent" person would measure his antenna attached to the transmitter's RF output, his transmission line between the transmitter and the antenna, and being unattached to earth ground would not realize the many things that comprise a "ground lead" or an "antenna".
Druid Hills Radio brings in a further complication...
An inexperienced hobbyist would not consider wires dangling from the negative trace of the transmitter to be either an antenna or anything related to "ground", which as we all know means "the earth".
I wouldn't have understood any of this prior to a day in the recent past when I suddenly became smarter.