I have a full size 1/4 wave vertical for forty in my small back yard. Last
year I used 4 raised radials. This year I have a dense ground screen made
up of criss crossed strips of 3 foot wide 2 inch poultry fencing. I have
noticed several differences. There is much less interaction with my other
nearby antennas, especially my tri-bander that interacted heavily with the
radials on 20 meters and also on 15. The swr changed with the amount of
moisture in the ground beneath the radials. Also, nobody could walk in the
backyard without doing the limbo. Did it work? Yes, it worked okay, though
I had no other antennas on 40 to compare it to. On the other hand, the
groundscreen shows very little interaction with my tribander, I notice no
change in swr with moisture, and I can walk around the back yard. Does it
work? Yes, very well. YB1A was s-8 on the vertical the other day on long
path in the afternoon and I worked him with one call running a kilowatt. I
also had little problem working E30NA. It is certainly quieter than I
remember the vertical with the raised radials to be. Again, I am in close
quarters and I don't have room to put the antennas as far from each other as
I would like, so I certainly like the less interaction I get with the screen
in place. Also, should I use something like an HF-6 or HF-2, I don't need to
put out seperate radials for each band.
Bill k1xt@hotmail.com
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