Topband: Yet Another Radial Question

[Chortek, Robert L]

Dear Fellow Topbanders,

I have a 60 foot base loaded vertical mounted 3 feet above the ground
next to the house.  I also have about 12 1/4 wave elevated radials (and
several 1/8 wave for 80m) in a gull wing configuration covering about
180 degrees of the compass all over the roof.  

Would performance improve if I added some radials on the ground in the
"other" directions. In other words, does it make sense to have a
combination of elevated radials and ground mounted radials in different
directions, if that is only what the house location and my lot will
allow?  I simply cannot put down a enough ground radials because the
house is in the way, and I cannot put up a sufficient number of elevated
radials because my property is not large enough and they would have to
extend over the neighbor's yard or be over the front yard which is not
possible (my xyl would never allow it). So to get close to the optimum
number of radials, I need to use a combination of ground and elevated
radials.  

Also, if it does make sense to add some ground radials, do they need to
be a 1/4 wave, or will any convenient length do? (I saw the post about
the optimum length being driven by the number of radials, so I guess the
question is whether that rule still applies when the ground radials are
used in combined with elevated radials.  

Thanks for any help,

73,

Bob/AA6VB