> In an effort to not reinvent the wheel, I am interested in the group's
> experience regarding ground screens.
>
> I still have no idea what transmitting antenna system I will ultimately
>
> So I envision first building a 9 acre ground screen (an area large
>
> Best 73, Scott W3TX
>
Several years ago, I built a 3/4 acre ground screen (a
hexagonal area 200 feet across the flats). I used 3
foot spacing so it would work up to 40 meters. The wire
was 16 gauge tinned bus wire from Interstate Wire (Dallas).
I silver soldered the crossovers (all 5000 of them). I couldn't
even imagine extrapolating this to 9 acres, due to the
amount of work involved.
After much electrical testing, I concluded that I still
needed 60 conventional radials for each vertical, but they
only needed to be 25 feet long and the ends were soldered
into the ground screen. Since the verticals are at least
50 feet apart, the radials don't cross over each other,
although they overlap ground screen wires.
The 80 meter vertical positions on the perimeter of the
ground screen have conventional radials for the 180 degrees
away from the ground screen. They are about 300 feet long.
Originally, I was going to also drive these verticals on 160
as well.
Altogether, I have 20 miles of wire covering 7 acres or so.
Most of this is hookup wire I got for practically nothing.
I don't think I would do it this way again. What I would
do in the future is just have radials on the ground crisscrossing
each other without soldering, as many people have done.
I would consider plowing them in, but I don't know how to
do that when they cross over each other.
I tell myself that with all the wire, etc, I must have done
at least some things right, as the verticals really get out.
Rick N6RK
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