TopBand: Planting Radials ??

[Patrick Dayshaw]

Last fall here in Seattle I put in about 1300 ft. of radials on my very
small (40' X 120') city lot for my Inverted L.  The ant. is located about
1/3rd of the distance from the back of the property, and about 10' from the
edge. The layout is not perfect by any means but it made a huge difference
in how the ant. plays.

I laid out each wire from an 8' ground rod driven at the base of the L and
temporarily "anchored" the far end by bending the #14 copper at right
angles and punching it into the ground.  All wires were soldered together
at the ground rod.  Some were only thirty feet long others
I managed to get into the 60 - 70 ft, range by running along the house etc.

I buried the wires with a straight bladed garden tool, it's about 8" wide,
heavy metal, with a "standard" garden tool handle.  The one I found has a
thicker edge on top of the blade where you put your foot.  I waited until
the rains came (it actually doesn't rain all the time in Seattle) and then
started working when the ground was wet and soft.  I just moved along and
pushed the blade down and then pushed the wire (carefully) into the slit. 
I found I could move along rather quickly.  In the areas where the grass
was thick I sort of hop-scotched along and just buried every 18 - 24".  The
wire just disappeared into the grass.  In the areas where the grass was
thin, I buried it all.  The wire was only an inch or two below the surface
in most areas.  Lawn looked a little weird for a week or two but after that
you couldn't tell it was there and as soon as spring came and the grass
started growing again there was no trace.

Patrick 
WA7VNI
patd@eskimo.com

----------
> From: Mike Rhodes <weightdn@bright.net>
> To: topband@contesting.com
> Subject: TopBand: Planting Radials ??
> Date: Saturday, October 19, 1996 3:38 PM
> 
> Greetings All,
>   Have been reading with interest the various discussions on ground
> systems. As a related topic, I'm wondering what sort of 'ingenious
> contraptions' you may have used to put your radials into or on the
ground.
> I have tried the 'weaving' of radials into the mat of the lawn but
> unfortunately my city lawn is a little sparse in spots and would seem to
> invite snagging with most anything. An ax for shallowly slotting the soil
> and a finger for poking the wire into the slot has been used successfully
> but sure isn't much fun! Surely someone has come up with a relatively
> simple but effective device for at least making radial planting less of a
> chore (short of tearing up and reseeding the lawn that is).
> 
> 73 de Mike / W8DN    
> weightdn@bright.net
> 
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