I'm on a really small lot and have put down as much of a radial system
in the back yard as I can. It's 27 radials out to the edges of the
yard, 40 feet square, so pretty miserable for the low bands. But,
pressing on, I've base loaded my 40 foot vertical and worked a few big
gun EU stations last night with 100W.
Since I've got about 12 countries worked on 160, this is a significant
DXing achievement... but I want to improve my efficiency on Topband.
I'm getting one of those 18m Spiderbeam poles and will try some base
and top loading combination; I can probably pick up a couple of dB
there, but I need more radials.
I can run them around the house... the question is whether or not it's
worth fanning them in the front yard. If I put in enough so that
their tips are spaced ~0.01wl in the front yard when fanned then this
probably gives 15 radials with lengths between 70 and 100 feet, but
they'd all be bunched up on the sides of the house.
Another option is to just run them so they're spaced 0.01wl in between
the house and the lot edge; this is cleaner and easier and gives about
6 90 foot radials out to the north edge of the lot.
Does wrapping them around the house actually work? It seemed a little
silly to me at first; I was thinking that near-field coupling to the
house wiring and so forth would dominate over whatever I could do in
the front yard, but then again, the house is small compared to a
wavelength, and even the longest radials are only going to be 0.15wl
long.
So does the front yard fan do anything besides make the neighbors
think I'm a weirdo? They seem to have taken the giant telescoping
fiberglass pole in stride . . .
Dan
_______________________________________________
Topband mailing list
Topband@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/topband
|