[TenTec] vertical radials

[Bill Tippett]

WB8VGE wrote:
 >I have the room, so should I go with 1/4 wave radials for 160 meters or 1/2
wave radials for 160 meters?
 >I plan on placing 120 radials in the ground..

         Mike, this is off the top of my head since I am not close to my
bookcase, but I believe this topic is well covered in ON4UN's latest
Low Band DX-ing book.  He has a formula which basically gives you a
tradeoff of length versus number of radials.  From my recollection,
60 is near the optimum for 1/4 wl radials and 120 for 1/2 wl radials.
More is always better but John's formula gives you an approximation
to a good tradeoff.  There was also an excellent paper on this topic
by N6LF at Dayton which is the 5th one down on this page:

http://www.kkn.net/dayton2004/

         As I'm sure others will tell you, the first thing I would do
is take the 160 base-loading coil from that Hy Tower and throw it
in the dumpster.  With the Hy Tower's 50' height, it would make
an excellent inverted-L for 160 by adding a top-loading wire of
about 80'.  An even better solution is a Tee (2 equal length wires
the same length on either side of the top).

Of course my comments are without regard to using the Hy Tower on
any band but 160.  :-)

         QRP is definitely possible on 160 and I plan to have some fun
next season with my new K2.  I made a couple of European contacts
this season on a good night running 4 watts from an Orion, and I
was able to copy G3XGC's K2 running 1 watt from his K2 to his very
small backyard antenna.  Conditions will improve over the next few
years and I suspect QRP contacts will become even easier.

                                                 73 & GL!

                                                 Bill  W4ZV