For what it's worth, many of you worked S9SS in 2002, the year I returned to
Sao Tome. The radiator was (and is) a 1/4 wave wire "T" with feed point to tip
length of about 130'. The vertical run is about 54'. Back then, that worked
against only two elevated radials about 60' long and only about 7 to 8 feet
above ground. They ran in line with the top of the "T." I isolated the
transmission line at the feed point network with a current balun rated for use
down to 160M. I used a single heavy duty loading coil in line with the the
radials and adjusted the tap on it to bring the system to resonance around 1830
kHz.
With that system, in addition to lots of Europeans, I worked some JA's and
many W's coast to coast.
In 2003, I replaced the elevated radials with about 40 ground radials. About
half those are 60' long. The remainder are only about 25' long. The ground in
the vicinity of the feed point "dog house" is boggy most of the year. It is
black muck and is a haven for ground crabs.
Since changing to ground radials, I have not noticed any obvious difference
in effectiveness. The only difference I can see is that the VSWR curve is much
broader with the ground radials.
In my S92SS days back in the 90's, my yard was small and was mostly paved. I
very successfully used a system with four elevated and crooked radials only 50'
long at about 7' high. That yard was rocky and dry.
The point is that one can still be fairly successful on 160M if conditions
don't allow an extensive ground radial system. Don't rule out an elevated
system, especially if ground radials are not possible.
I was on 160M a while last night for the first time this season. As usual
here, the noise was horrendous. I did manage to work two very strong ZS
stations through the S9 plus noise. I was spotted in the Netherlands, but I
couldn't hear any European callers.
This will be the final year for S9SS on top band. I will probably begin to
dismantle the station in early January. I'll reach Foreign Service mandatory
(and much desired) retirement at age 65 in February.
73,
Charles Lewis - S9SS
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