TopBand: Re: Radials in general

Larry Higgins n9dx@michiana.org
Fri, 06 Mar 1998 15:21:40 -0500


At 06:51 AM 3/6/98 -0600, W0YG wrote:
>However, on the subject of radials, I recently purchased one of those
>Palomar antenna current meters. I lent it to a friend who has a four
>square.  He casually happened to measure the current in his somewhat
>elevated radials, they start roughly five feet off the ground.  Some
>stay off the ground, others eventually lay on the ground.
>
>Anyhow, the important finding was that the larger the radial wire, the
>more current that radial carried!  So, his return currents were not even
>which lead to a further suspicion that was the reason some directions
>seemed to get out better than others.
>
>I guess the moral of this story is ground radials need to be all the
>same size.

This would be true if you want to have an omnidirectional pattern.  But if
you want to favor any particular direction, maybe nice fat radials in the
desired direction(s) would help to do so.

Thanks for sharing your observations with us.

73

Larry, N9DX



--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/topband.html
Submissions:              topband@contesting.com
Administrative requests:  topband-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-topband@contesting.com