Topband: Radials, etc

[Peter Dougherty]

Hi again,

Thanks for all the replies. I had 1/2 a spool of #14 already, bought 
another yesterday and will get however much more is needed to fill up 
the available space with copper. As I think I mentioned, I can only 
go in a quarter-circle "arc" from the base of the L (west through 
North), and a bunch of small (as in 10 to 25') north through east, 
and one or two very long ones beside the driveway due east.

What is probably worth noting is that the radials will be exactly the 
opposite direction from the horizontal part of the L. It will run 
east, over top of the house, driveway and front lawn to an 80' oak 
tree and the radials will run west. Also the horizontal portion will 
run up to a higher tree than the support for the vertical section 
(can't run the feedline through the front yard to the taller tree, 
nor do the radial thing on the front lawn).

If the tree guys work their magic as well as I hope they will, I 
intend to have at least 10 or 15 radials down tomorrow, the rest over 
the weekend. I've got a 40-80-160 vee up there now and I know how it 
plays (for DX--horribly on RX, slightly-less-horribly on TX), so I'll 
see if there's any improvement with the L. That vee will come down 
and a monoband-V for 80 will go up in its place soonish.

With any luck, I'll be QRV with a better antenna by tomorrow night. 
After that, here's hoping that the AYL-4 ships from Array Solutions soon!



Cheers,

Peter,
W2IRT