> It doesn't work very well. Last night it was much poorer on receive and
> transmit than my existing 43' vertical setup. I'm not sure what to think.
Your fundamental problem is a lack of understanding of how a monopole
works, specifically a base fed vertical with a ground system. Anyone
who tries to use a ground system that converges on a point removed 10
or 20 feet from where the vertical element is excited does not really
understand how these antennas work. You can't expect good
performance by distorting the geometry of the antenna to bring the
feed point to the counter poise convergence point. You can't just
throw out physics. it will radiate something, it just won't meet your
expectations, as you mentioned. If I were you, I'd fall back and
start doing some reading. These antennas in their various forms
have been developed since the 1930s. There's a pretty vast amount of
information about them, but what you will probably benefit most from,
is a college text book treatment, the kind of text used for a class on
radio broadcast engineering. One such text is Radio-Electronic
Transmission Fundamentals by B. Whitfield Griffith, Jr. 2nd ed. It
has a few chapters on medium wave verticals, ground systems, radiation
resistance, current and field intensity but is written for students in
an easy to understand way. Perhaps you can find a used copy on-line.
It's better to take your time and study these things, then use your
knowledge to correctly construct the antenna, even it it means waiting
until next fall to try it.
73
Rob
K5UJ
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