Topband
[Top] [All Lists]

Topband: Radial wire selection and installation

To: <topband@contesting.com>
Subject: Topband: Radial wire selection and installation
From: W6IZT@aol.com (W6IZT@aol.com)
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2002 08:05:11 EDT
I've learned that if you want to install radials quickly its a two man job. 

As stated in an earlier post I use 14ga PVC covered solid copper wire. The 
attachment point is a square ring of 3/4 in copper pipe the is placed around 
the concrete base of my tower. 

I built a small holder for the spools of wire and placed it at the base of 
the tower. I laid out each radial to the desired length and attached the far 
end to the ground using a home made staple. While my son was attaching the 
near end of the radial to the ground ring, I was already laying out the next 
radial. Once all of the radials were laid out I soldered each radial to the 
ground ring, I then placed additional staples as needed to keep the radials 
in contact with the ground to ensure that the grass would eventually grow 
over the radials.

I had to fish some of the radials under dense brush. I attached the end of 
the radial to a length of pipe and pushed it under the brush, pulling it 
through from the other side. The pipe also works well if you are trying to 
lay radial in tall grass or weeds. Attach the end of radial to the pipe and 
hold it vertically with the radial end on the ground while walking.

Using these methods you can lay out about 20-30 radials per hour.

73
Gregg
W6IZT


--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
---

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>