Ford,
Adding radials in the near field of your vertical won't lower your
angle of radiation. Rather it will improve efficiency which will
increase your field strength in every direction in proportion to the
efficiency improvement (actually to be more accurate - in proportion
to the square root of the efficiency improvement). IOW, you should
get louder in every direction when you add radials as you will be
putting more power into the sky that would be otherwise warming
the earthworms. In order to have a significant impact on the radiation
pattern shape (especially at low takeoff angles), you would need to
extend your radials many wavelengths from the antenna. On the TX
side, adding radials is akin to increasing the power input to the
antenna, the advantage being that your electric bill will not go up
when you go the radial route :):)
73 de Mike, W4EF...................
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