> Does anyone know of a way to find buried radials, short of
> digging up the backyard? I've tried a dip meter and a
> field strength meter all to no avail. Want to add more
> radials between the ones I have, but after several years
> not sure where they are. Thanks for any and all help. Ron
> KB7ZR
Ron,
I fashioned a loop antenna out of copper tubing gapped the
top and soldered to a double sided PC board box. It has a
long metal handle so I can hold it a few feet away.
The box has a simple J310 FET and a tuning cap and
bandswitch that switches in padding caps.
I use it with a portable noise locating receiver but there
is no reason it would not work with a portable SW BC
receiver.
What I do is snap a large ferrite bead wound with several
turns of wire over the wire or cable I am trying to locate,
and connect my MFJ-259 to that bead winding. That way I can
excite the cable or wire with RF.
I can locate cables that are two or three feet deep with it.
I can literally find a cable that is a few feet deep within
inches of the exact location. Of course it is MUCH more
accurate for a surface wire.
A metal detector will not work because it runs on such a low
frequency it can't detect things the size of straight wires
less than 1/2 inch or so diameter unless it is iron or
steel. There just won't be strong enough eddy currents in a
small diameter copper wire. I find 1/2 inch or large cables
near the surface with my metal detector, but deep buried
cables or small wires near the surface require a loop
antenna of some type and a signal source of some type that
injects current in the wire.
You MIGHT be able to ground one end of an ohm meter to the
radial junction and probe the earth with the other probe.
I've seen that work before with an analog meter, Simpson
260, on high ohms scales.
73 Tom
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