Fred Roberts, W6TKV, wrote:
>...The only somewhat serious antenna thought I had a while back was to put
>up a quarter-wave 80M vertical right at the edge of my front
>sidewalk.... I could then run radials down, across and along the
>street - just nail them down to the street and pour tar over the
>radial wires....
Years ago at another QTH I had a similar situation. I noticed that
the city had poured tar along so many cracks in the street that (1) a
few more tar-covered cracks would not be noticed; and (2) all the tar
that I'd need to seal to seal any new cracks I created could be
scavenged from the old cracks, easily, with a putty knife on a hot
sunny day.
So, at an appropriate hour, I used a hammer and a cold-chisel to make
a few new cracks; I stuffed my radial wires into these cracks; and I
tarred the cracks. My street radials were still intact five years
later when I moved to another QTH; and no one ever noticed them. My
vertical, BTW, was a wire run up the side of a tree trunk, on the
side of the tree facing away from the street, of course.
If I were going to do this again today, I'd use a power tool to cut
the new cracks, and I wouldn't bother scavenging tar; I'd just buy it.
-Chuck, W1HIS
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