Gentlemen and Ladies(?),
Sorry for the fat posting but this is generally what I received for info on the
ground radial question. Many ways to skin a cat! There were a lot of responses
mentioning the Hams and links below for a commercial approach. I like the
bending of copper tubing into a circle and joining the ends together with
silver solder and just have a field day silver soldering the wires onto the
tubing. The tubing formed into a circle will have its own heavy duty connection
to a ground rod (or two). I like doing things in the heavy duty mode.
Have fun reading
G'day
Fred KC4MOP
http://www.comteksystems.com/
Les, N1SV
\Here's one with 24 radial tie points:
http://www.qth.com/lance/GP-1.html
Jim N7US
An even easier and low cost approach is to tie several what I will call pig
tails to the ground rod. these are lengths of say 12 gauge wire. to each of
these connect 5 to 10 radials. I use 1/4 inch bolts and washers and then
coat them with Vaseline to keep them from corroding. Cost next to nothing
and easily connect as many radials as you want.
Good luck
Ron
N4XD
If you are using copper wire radials, take a heavy piece of copper wire or
strap and make a circle or rectangle around the base of the antenna, to form
a ground bus. Braze each radial wire to the bus.
You can purchase a silver alloy brazing rod from any plumbing supply shop.
It is now illegal to use regular lead/tin solder to join copper pipes due to
the perceived danger of lead leaching into the water system. Modern
plumbing codes require use of this kind of silver solder.
The rods are not dirt cheap, but are not overly expensive either. They
come in lengths about 18" long, and are flat, about 1/8" wide. You don't
need any flux.. Once the copper is heated, it sucks up the stuff the way a
sponge sucks up water. I have had mine installed for over 20 years with no
sign of deterioration.
You have to heat the copper to a higher temperature than with regular
solder. I use a Mapp Gas torch. It looks and works similar to a propane
torch, but the flame is much hotter. You need to heat the copper to a dull
red glow. You have to be careful not to melt the copper wire to a blob on
the end, but this won't happen if you don't allow it to heat to bright
orange.
In my opinion, those aluminum ring things are bogus. Aluminum slowly
turns to a white powder when it remains in contact with the soil. Plus I'm
not sure what would be the effect of the dissimilar metals in contact
with wet soil.
You don't want to use lead/tin solder. It turns to a white powder when in
contact with the soil. I once used it, and had to re-solder my radials
about once a month. The solder would turn to powder and the connection
would literally fall apart.
Hope to CU soon on 160.
Don
I opted to use 3/4 inch copper tubing for my ground ring. I drilled the
number of holes I wanted and tapped them and dug a small hole around the
antenna deep enough to fit the ring inside and then used a rubber
decorative ring to lay over the top and give the appearance that it was
beauty bark. Available at most hardware or nursery growers. This keeps
the water and snow off of the ring and helps to increase it life span.
The ring is attached directly to the 8' ground rod at the antenna and it
works just fine.
Total cost was about $4 for the copper tubing. I originally had 1/2
inch but found it wasn't big enough or rigid enough so I switched to
3/4"
Hope this gives you an idea.............
Dennis/K?CKD
I have also made my own from copper flashing and pressure treated wood.
Home Depot has copper flashing up to about 2 feet in width. Just cut
the flashing to the size you want; the wood a little larger; and fasten
the copper to the wood by any convenient method (roofing nails work
great). Drill your holes around the perimeter of the copper and fasten
the radials with machine or wood screws. You also have the advantage of
being able to solder a coax connector to the copper and of soldering the
radials if you wish.
BTW, unless you are a lot better with tin snips than I am, save yourself
a lot of time and aggravation - make it square, not round.
Merv
Steve Gucewicz, aka Lance Johnson Enterprises. Lance/Steve is K0CS"
PO Box 1847
Elizabeth, CO 80107
(303) 646-4630
(303) 646-2326 FAX
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