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Hi to all:
I have a pair of phased beverages running through the middle (at least
one does) of my three element array and I don't seem to be troubled by
noise pickup on the beverages from my verticals.
However, on the subject of radials, I recently purchased one of those
Palomar antenna current meters. I lent it to a friend who has a four
square. He casually happened to measure the current in his somewhat
elevated radials, they start roughly five feet off the ground. Some
stay off the ground, others eventually lay on the ground.
Anyhow, the important finding was that the larger the radial wire, the
more current that radial carried! So, his return currents were not even
which lead to a further suspicion that was the reason some directions
seemed to get out better than others.
I guess the moral of this story is ground radials need to be all the
same size.
I have not measured the return currents in my radials yet but I will
this summer. I have 104 quarter wave radials under each vertical. The
radials lay on the ground. They are #20 guage, teflon insulated surplus
hookup wire.
>Food for thought.
>73,
Charlie, W0YG..>>
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