Topband: Sharing radials?

[W8AV@aol.com]

In a message dated 12/3/02 10:01:46 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
VY2MGY@sympatico.ca writes:


> I ran both feeds through a Diawa Coax Selector [ 2 SO239's on one end and 
> 1 SO239 on the other with a selector switch in the middle ] and shorted out 
> the 
> outer rings of the SO239's that are touching the braids of both RG58U 
> cables, which are, on both
> antennas, now connected to the 104 radials. It loaded fine on both but is 
> this a 
> good thing to do? Am I getting the benifit of the radial system for both 
> antennas?
> I will be doing tests but I need the experts opinion. I don't remember 
> reading about
> this anywhere which is in itself not a good sign.....
> 

This should not be a problem at all.  Although it is a different configuation 
than yours, I have a 1/4 wave series fed vertical on 160 that has 100 quater 
wave radials under the antenna system.  Also attached to the tower are there 
nylon lines that angle down toward the ground that I use to support my three 
element 80 meter array (arranged in an equilateral triangle).  There are 
about 30 radials under each elemet of the 80 meter array that lie on top of 
and are bonded to the 160 ground system.  So in effect I have a sort of  
"mesh" under the 160 tower and also the 80 meter array.  I can use both of 
these antennas with no degradation in radiated signal.  In fact, the "mesh" 
ground sustem make the entire ground system a bit better.

So, you should see no performance degradation in either your L or your 
vertical from using the common ground system.  The only adverse effects you 
might have is the coupling from one antenna to the other that might distort 
the omnidirectional pattern of each antenna and could possibly cause some 
tuning problems with each antenna.  But since they are really close together 
and in the induction field of each other, this problem should also be 
minimal.

73..........de Goose, W8AV


--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
---