Wayne,
All my inverted L radials are THHN. First it's easy to find, second it's
relatively inexpensive for what you get and third the soil around here
is really tough on copper.
There is a lot of sulfur in the soil and air which turns everything
black faster than I have seen elsewhere.
The inverted L developed a crack in the insulation and the wire corroded
and broke in a few months - this wire is jacketed Wireman copper antenna
wire.
As I have added radials (up to about 40+ now), the impedance changed and
the resonance narrowed, like the book says and it works well.
Les W2LK near Kingston, NY
On 11/5/2010 12:11 PM, Wayne Rogers wrote:
> I've been reading, and still haven't come up with an answer to the following
> question:
>
> With radials laid on the ground, does it make any difference if they are
> insulated (THHN) or bare? I suspect not, but would like to know that I am
> not making a bad assumption. Seems that even the most recent works in this
> area don't talk about the difference between "laying wire on the ground" and
> copper wire directly in contact with earth. Conceptually I understand that
> the wire laid on the ground is capacitatively coupled to the earth, but how
> does the effect of this translate to the decision to use bare vs. insulated
> wire?
>
> I have six 1/4 wave radials (THHN) on the ground and will continue to add
> shorter radials interspersed between them. I can work Europe (barely) with
> my 100 watts, but know I can do better. Thanks to all for the many posts and
> sharing your wisdom.
>
> Wayne, N1WR
> _______________________________________________
> UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
>
>
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UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
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