Topband: Radials Again

[Jim Brown]

On Mon, 02 Oct 2006 23:11:03 -0400, AB2E Darrell wrote:

>Ideally, the tuned radials should be mounted about 10ft above ground.

You got only part of the story. Elevated radials need to be a 
significant fraction of a quarter-wave above ground to be as effective 
as a much larger number of on-the-ground radials, and 10 ft is far from 
high enough on 160. There is a good discussion of elevated radial 
systems in ON4UN's book. 

Increasing the number of radials improves performance by reducing loss 
in the earth. Your installation with only 3 or 4 radials at 10 ft 
probably still had a lot of ground loss. So did my wrought iron fence 
in Chicago. But like your setup, it was better than nothing, and both 
of us managed to have some fun on 160 with less than ideal antennas. :) 

73,

Jim Brown K9YC