Topband: Ground Radials & Multi-Element Antennas

[K9AY]

> Edward Swynar <gswynar at durham.net> wrote:
>> I've seen ground radial lay-out patterns beneath multi-element
>> verticalarrays illustrated in ON4UN's book that have the ground systems 
>> all inter-connected, thus "commonizing" the radial system for all of the 
>> elements in the array...
>
> In absence of some good reason
> to pass an electric current from wire A to wire B,
> I'd rather keep those wires unconnected.
> Sinisa  YT1NT, VE3EA
>

The objective is to avoid overlapping radials, as would be the case in most 
arrays with 1/4-wave radials. Interactions between individual radials can 
create spots where there is current cancellation, reducing their 
effectiveness. I believe W7EL and K3LC have both verified this through 
modeling. The practice of truncating radials and bonding to a common bus was 
developed empirically in the early days of broadcasting, probably documented 
somewhere in the papers of G.H. Brown. (Personally I would defer to this 
early work -- it was very thorough experimental science.)

Bottom line -- Eddy, if your 1/8-wave radials do not overlap, there should 
be no problem.

Gary
K9AY