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Re: [TowerTalk] Raised Radial Spacing

To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Raised Radial Spacing
From: Jim Brown <jim@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Reply-to: jim@audiosystemsgroup.com
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2025 13:58:55 -0700
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
On 10/28/2025 11:15 AM, n1bkb--- via TowerTalk wrote:
While I have not tried the grounding system you suggested, I checked with the 
mfr of my Zero Five 43' vertical and he approved my alternate grounding 
solution.

Radials and other counterpoise systems are NOT GROUND, and are NOT intended to couple to the earth! They are the other half of the antenna, an attempt to provide a low resistance path for the antenna's return current. On-ground and buried radials DO couple to the earth, but that is a BAD thing, because the earth is a big resistor. The greater the number of radials, the lower the loss.

I suggest that you go back and study all that has been contributed to this long discussion, including the slides for my tutorial talk on 160M antennas, which is really about radial and counterpoise systems. The concepts apply to all base-fed verticals that have a low-impedance feedpoint, regardless of what band they're used on.

http://k9yc.com/160MPacificon.pdf

73, Jim K9YC





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