Topband: Another non-traditional antenna working.

[Richard (Rick) Karlquist]

On 11/15/2011 9:10 PM, Guy Olinger K2AV wrote:

> field, either buried or elevated.  Therefore, presuming that undense
> irregular radials that would fit would be excessively lossy, per RBN
> data previously gathered, the +33, -33 foot linear folded counterpoise
> (FCP) is used instead, elevated at 8 feet.  The folds in the
> counterpoise are designed to self-cancel fields as much as possible,
> thereby minimizing ground induction, which is loss to skywave.  The 66

> 73, Guy.e

It seems to me that the folded counterpoise is equivalent to
a couple of loaded short radials, except that "linear loading"
is used instead of lumping loading coils.
Thus the ground induction loss is not reduced by the folding.   So this 
is just a non-traditional implementation of 2 short loaded elevated
radials.  Nothing wrong with that, if implemented carefully.  The 
decrease in gain is probably within the margin of error of RBN.

In the described small backyard situation, I would think that making
radials out of plain wire and loading them with coils at the feedpoint
would be more acceptable from the visual clutter viewpoint.

Rick N6RK