[Antennaware] Common Radials with two separate antennae

[Gary Smith]

Hi,

I need to relocate my Butternut from it's pole with elevated radials 
to a place out of sight in the forest beside me. It is a HF9V good 
for 6M-80M. I am also using a 130' wire over the top of a tall tree 
as a semi vertical on 160. There are two radials on the ground at the 
ground point for this antenna so it's a slanted ground plane.

I was able to find a solid sheet of Stainless 10"x14"x1/8" and am 
planning on drilling holes in it to anchor radials via stainless nuts 
& bolts. My thought was to place this plate beside the butternut and 
then attach it to the butternut base via a short ground connection

I was thinking that I might be better off if I were to use these 
radials for both butternut & 160 antenna at the same time. I would 
have to make a matching network for the 160 wire so I could feed it 
with coax and I could either run two coax or just one and use a 
remote bandswitch to go between the two.

Here's where I'm especially unknowing... 

If both of the antennae utilize the grounding plate, could I use a 
coax "T" connector and feed the butternut with one leg and the 160 
with the other and avoid the two runs of coax or the remote switching 
unit? I do have an old (1992) ICE remote bandswitch I haven't used in 
years but if I could successfully use the coax "T", that would by far 
be the best.

One other time worn question is how many radials lying on the ground 
(buried under leaves) before reaching the diminishing returns? I have 
room for radials of various lengths and enough wite to maybe come up 
with 30-40 at 70 feet long. Maybe not quite that long, don't know, 
it's on a spool and is the copper clad telephone drop line & I'll 
have to split the wire in half as they're like solid element light 
cord wire. 

I'm sue that # of radials will be fine for the butternut but I do 
plan on working 160 this year now that I have the Array Solutions 
K9AY set up.

Thanks,

Gary
KA1J