Chicken wire is not a good idea. Why? The wire corrodes where it is tied
together and creates a junction that has a higher resistance. After awhile you
have a ground plane full of little resistors. I've experienced that it (the
chicken wire) can create a "noise" factor into the antenna system because of
these junctions. I have found (following published findings of others) the 32
to 35 radials are good enough and that anything over that has diminishing
returns and might not be worth the work and expense. Yes, 60 radials seems to
be the "gold standard" but I've seen very little return in going from 32 to 35
radials to 60 radials.
Your Mileage May Vary.....
Lee k0WA
The New Kansas QSO Party - August 29, Sat 9am-9pm and August 30 Sun 9am-3pm
CDT
More Info at: http://www.ksqsoparty.org/
In our day and age it seems that Common Sense is in short supply. If you don't
have any Common Sense - get some Common Sense and use it. If you can't find
any Common Sense, ask for help from somebody who has some Common Sense. Is
Common Sense divine?
________________________________
From: GALE STEWARD <k3nd@yahoo.com>
To: towertalk reflector <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 12:06:04 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Chicken Wire Ground Screen
I might actually give this idea a try this fall. You could roll out the chicken
wire in several directions and tie it into the normal radial system for some
increased performance (?) during the winter DX/contest season. Then just roll
it back up in the spring. As I recall, ON4UN used to do this some years ago.
73, Stew K3ND
--- On Fri, 6/12/09, Pete Smith <n4zr@contesting.com> wrote:
> From: Pete Smith <n4zr@contesting.com>
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Chicken Wire Ground Screen
> To: k2xx@swva.net, towertalk@contesting.com
> Date: Friday, June 12, 2009, 8:33 PM
> Check out www.k3lr.com for Rob
> Sherwood's paper given during the
> 2009 Dayton antenna forum. If I recall correctly, he
> used hardware
> cloth that was hot-galvanized after weaving and fastened
> together
> with cable-clamps. In a visit to a local farm supply,
> I found some
> similar material with 2 X 4 openings that was about half as
> expensive
>
> 73, Pete
>
> At 05:06 PM 6/12/2009, Joe Giacobello wrote:
> >I know that there are several folks out there who are
> using chicken wire
> >ground screens in addition to radials for their
> verticals. I'm curious
> >to know if the various sections of chicken wire are (1)
> soldered to one
> >another and (2) to the radial system? I'd guess
> if the chicken wire
> >sections were overlapped at their edges, there would be
> a high
> >probability of their making contact somewhere along
> their length so that
> >soldering wouldn't be unnecessary. No?
> >
> >I presume that the lifetime on the ground for the
> chicken wire is
> >relatively short? Two-three years? OTOH,
> wouldn't the remnants of the
> >wire and its degradation products enhance the
> conductivity of the soil
> >surrounding the antenna so that the remaining radials
> are now more
> >effective?
> >
> >Just curious to know what your collective experiences
> and thoughts are
> >on this subject.
> >
> >Thanks for your input.
> >
> >73, Joe
> >K2XX
> >_______________________________________________
> >
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >TowerTalk mailing list
> >TowerTalk@contesting.com
> >http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|