Burying radials is a tedious, tiring job indeed. I did
it once and vowed never again. Since then, I've had
good results with laying the radials down on top of
the grass in the fall after the grass cutting season
is over. Of course, if you don't have grass, then
that's another story. But I had lots of grass and
found that when I used small gauge insulated wire (no
particular size, whatever I could find in the flea
market at Dayton), I had excellent results.
By spring, the radials were completely buried in the
grass thatch and I had to get on my hands and knees to
push the grass back to find the radials. They had
buried themselves.
I used a Lance Johnson Engineering radial connection
bus and anchored the end of each radial in the ground
by wrapping it around a large 16-penny nail and
driving the nail into the ground. I was able to lay 50
60-foot radials at the base of a Butternut HF6V
vertical in about 2 hours -- all while standing and
not getting a backache. The vertical was way out in
the backyard in the clear and the results were
excellent. I worked tons of 80 meter CW DX with that
antenna. An ice storm finally claimed the Butternut
vertical 6 years later and the radials, despite being
small gauge wire, were still working fine.
73, Dave, N4KZ
--- Jim W7RY <w7ry@centurytel.net> wrote:
> I have seen "staples" that are used for holding drip
> type irrigation hose
> down in your flower beds. Most likely available at
> Home Depot or Lowes..
>
> Also may be something used to hold shrub bed edging
> down.
>
> Good luck.
> Jim W7RY
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <ersmar@comcast.net>
> To: "Bud Hippisley, K2KIR" <k2kir@telenet.net>;
> <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 11:19 AM
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Burying radials
>
>
> > Bud:
> >
> > I don't envy you and the work you'll be doing
> setting down your
> ground
> > wires in that forest! But I can help with the
> staple idea.
> >
> > I have about a half-mile of various gauge
> radial wires in the grass
> > around my house for my 160M inverted L. I used
> pieces of wire shirt
> hangers
> > as the staples to hold them down. I cut the
> hangers into pieces about
> five
> > or six inches long and bent them into a hairpin.
> They seem to work pretty
> > well because I've had to relocate a few wires
> since then and I really had
> to
> > pull on the wires to get the staples to come out.
> >
> > If necessary, you might be able to buy
> sufficient hangers from the
> > local dry cleaners. I'm able to cut five or six
> staples from each hanger.
> > I got my collection of hangers over several years
> of having my work shirts
> > professionally laundered. (I drive a desk for a
> living.)
> >
> > 73 de
> > Gene Smar AD3F
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Bud Hippisley, K2KIR" <k2kir@telenet.net>
> > To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
> > Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 1:08 PM
> > Subject: [TowerTalk] Burying radials
> >
> >
> > > This winter I put up a 90-foot Rohn 45 guyed
> tower -- partly to support
> my
> > HF Yagis and partly to serve as my top-loaded
> 160-meter vertical.
> > >
> > > Because the ground was frozen by the time I
> could get around to putting
> > down radials, I laid some temporary radials on top
> of the ground just
> before
> > the first significant snowfall. Now the snow has
> gone (finally!) and
> > everybody is tripping over the wires, so now I
> need to bury two or three
> > dozen "permanent" radials. After looking in my
> junk box, the radials are
> > most apt to be #12 insulated solid copper house
> wire (for mechanical
> > strength) or #16 bare solid copper wire (if I find
> any advantage to using
> > it).
> > >
> > > I live in a forest, so the top surface of my
> yard consists of pine
> > needles, clumps of moss, and numerous surface
> roots from pines, balsams,
> > hemlocks, and an occasional hardwood. Because
> there are so many roots I
> > doubt that the "EdgeHog" or any similar device
> would be of much use to me.
> > Instead, I'm thinking of hand trenching with a
> garden trowel a foot or two
> > at a time, where possible, and then using some
> kind of pound-in clip to
> hold
> > each radial in place where it has to come out of
> the ground to go over a
> > tree root. (Probably in pairs -- one on each side
> of the root.)
> Something
> > that looks like a miniature tent-peg seems like it
> would be ideal, but I
> > certainly can't afford real tent-pegs, based on
> the prices I've seen in
> area
> > stores, and they're typically far too big for what
> I have in mind.
> > >
> > > Soooo.....I'm wondering if anyone knows of
> something that would do the
> > "tie down" job and is readily (and cheaply)
> available at Lowe's, Home
> Depot,
> > or the national hardware chains. (Whatever I use,
> I expect to need many
> > hundreds of them.) Alternatively, has anyone ever
> taken a large
> electrical
> > or construction staple and bent the sharp ends
> back up, so that they
> resist
> > being removed -- much like the barb on a fish hook
> -- after being driven
> > into the ground?
> > >
> > > Bud, K2KIR
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > >
> > > See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self
> Supporting Towers", "Wireless
> > Weather Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll
> Free, 1-800-333-9041 with
> any
> > questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > TowerTalk mailing list
> > > TowerTalk@contesting.com
> > >
>
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> >
> > See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self
> Supporting Towers", "Wireless
> Weather Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free,
> 1-800-333-9041 with any
> questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > TowerTalk mailing list
> > TowerTalk@contesting.com
> >
>
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
> >
> >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting
> Towers", "Wireless Weather Stations", and lot's
> more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any
> questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk@contesting.com
>
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
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