<<<I think it would be easier to steal wire above ground rather than
in the ground?>>>
Maybe, but there are a few factors that make this arrangement less
appealing to the crack heads (the thing that perplexes me is how the
crack heads even know about AM ground systems in the first place) who
steal the wire:
1. Elevated radials may be harder to get to. In order for them to
work well at AM broadcast frequencies, they have to be pretty high up
off the ground, high enough to be out of reach to anyone standing on
the ground.
2. As has been stated earlier, there are fewer of them (less copper
for scrap) so the potential payoff is less attractive for the work
required to get at them.
With in-ground systems, all a strung-out guy needs to do is poke
around with a shovel and find one in the dark then run along ripping
it up. 120 nice long pieces of bare no. 10 or no. 8 wire. A few
stations bury their radials deep but many do not, and they also have
their towers out some place with anti-climb fences and maybe fences
around the guy anchors but not around the whole piece of property.
Ever done an estimate of the cost of ploughing in a new ground? get
the cost / foot of bare no. 10 wire, figure how much you need for a
1/4 wave radial at say, 1000 KHz, multiply that by 120, then again by
2 or 3 for a 2 or 3 tower directional antenna to get an idea for a
typical job. Then there's labor for the crew who will show up and do
the work which will take a few days and you will quickly realize this
is a lot of money--this ain't no ham job with 60 radials of no. 14
from Home Depot for 1900 KHz. And after all that, the copper is out
there waiting to be pulled up again one night? No thanks--it's
probably more cost effective to have the engineering work done and
file an application for modification and elevate.
73,
rob / k5uj
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