Topband: One More Radial Question

[Les Kalmus]

  Wayne,

All my inverted L radials are THHN. First it's easy to find, second it's 
relatively inexpensive for what you get and third the soil around here 
is really tough on copper.
There is a lot of sulfur in the soil and air which turns everything 
black faster than I have seen elsewhere.
The inverted L developed a crack in the insulation and the wire corroded 
and broke in a few months - this wire is jacketed Wireman copper antenna 
wire.
As I have added radials (up to about 40+ now), the impedance changed and 
the resonance narrowed, like the book says and it works well.

Les W2LK near Kingston, NY



On 11/5/2010 12:11 PM, Wayne Rogers wrote:
> I've been reading, and still haven't come up with an answer to the following question:
>
> With radials laid on the ground, does it make any difference if they are insulated (THHN) or bare?  I suspect not, but would like to know that I am not making a bad assumption.  Seems that even the most recent works in this area don't talk about the difference between "laying wire on the ground" and copper wire directly in contact with earth.  Conceptually I understand that the wire laid on the ground is capacitatively coupled to the earth, but how does the effect of this translate to the decision to use bare vs. insulated wire?
>
> I have six 1/4 wave radials (THHN) on the ground and will continue to add shorter radials interspersed between them.  I can work Europe (barely) with my 100 watts, but know I can do better.  Thanks to all for the many posts and sharing your wisdom.
>
> Wayne, N1WR
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