Thanks to those of you who responded with information
on radial "fan out". Here's what I learned:
- apparently, this had been discussed before on tower
talk using the term "forking" (which makes as much
sense as 'fan out' I suppose):
http://lists.contesting.com/_towertalk/200101/msg00300.html
- the group never did reach consensus as to whether
forking aka fanning out radials made sense. A few
responses to that earlier thread doubted the
practicality. Further study/modeling is warranted. In
the earlier thread, the proposal was to "fork" about
halfway out (at .125 wl) - I was hoping to fan-out as
soon as the radial hit the ground.
- One thought was that because the highest current was
near the antenna, the most radials should be there -so
fan-out would be ineffective because of the reduced
number of radials at the mast. Again, IMO modeling and
field tests are needed to bear this out.
- A few commented that the fan-out idea probably
wouldn't work (gut feelings, etc.) but hadn't tried
it.
- Another tip was to keep the slope of the radials as
close to horizontal as possible.
Once again, thanks for the great info this board
provides.
Pat, N0HR
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