Topband: End Fed Twin Lead Marconi Antenna

[Augie Hansen]

Garry wrote:
> ... I wonder why the antennas at 
> WWV are using ground planes with 9 radials? Nine just seems like an odd 
> number and I wondered if there was a reason for this number as I don't 
> see any explanation on their website.

Nine (9) is in fact an odd number. But those wires are not actually 
radials. The WWV antennas are half-wave verticals, that is dipoles, not 
monopoles. The bottom half of each antenna is constructed to be both the 
lower half of a dipole and the guy-wire support system for the antenna.

Here is a URL for a document file that gives a NIST/WWV description, 
including some details of the antenna construction:

    http://www.w5qx.org/PDF/June%202004%20Kilo-What.pdf

Gus Hansen
KB0YH