If you look hard at chicken wire you'll see that any surface
treatment was apparently applied to the wire before it was
twisted. Hardware cloth and my favorite, something called 2 x 4
galvanized mesh (for the size of the rectangles, in inches) are
galvanized after forming and shouldn't have the problem. It's also
about a third the cost for the same area, at least around here.
73, Pete
At 01:42 PM 6/16/2009, Lee Buller wrote:
>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
> > >_______________________________________________
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