Topband: Technique for Putting Don Radials?

[W8AV at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/22/2004 3:24:05 AM GMT Standard Time, wd3q at starpower.net 
writes:
At a recent PVRC meeting, an interesting method for laying down lots of
radials for a vertical.  Instead of cutting each radial individually and
attaching each piece to the vertical section, this technique involved
first staking out the outer perimeter of the radial "field", followed by
taking a LARGE spool of wire, attaching it on one end and unspooling it
to one perimeter stake, across to the adjacent one and then back to the
center "pole"... and repeating the process until completion.

This seems to be a quicker, less labor intensive (although using more
wire) method that appears to achieve the same effect... creating a ground
plane. 

Did I get this right? I believe it was credited to W5UN, but I didn't see
anything on his website. 

Can anyone comment on this and/or point me to some written documentation? 

That technique works just fine, although, as you said, it uses a 
significantly higher amount of wire.  The idea of the radial system is to minimize the 
gound losses in the immediate vicinity of the antenna.  So you are accomplishing 
that goal with this technique.

Obviously the best ground system is a wire mesh that completely encompasses 
the radial field out to a distance of 0.25 or 0.4 wavelengths from the antenna, 
but none of us usually have the time or money to implement such a ground 
system

Good job on getting the ground system finished, Eric.  I am sure that you 
will notice that the antenna will perform just fine.

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