Topband: Adding a Ground to Elevated Feed Vertical?

[Bob Kupps]

Hi I would leave the radials isolated from earth and add as many more as possible even very short ones. For the DC ground use an RFchoke or better a 1/4 wave shorted stub. 


________________________________
 From: Mark Adams <msadams60 at gmail.com>
To: topband at contesting.com 
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 4:08 AM
Subject: Topband: Adding a Ground to Elevated Feed Vertical?
 
Hi Gang,

I've been running my vertical for a couple of weeks now and it plays very
nicely. The setup is:

85' up and 42' horizontal.
Comtek 1:1 balun at feedpoint 7' off ground.
3 x ~137' radials all between 7 and 13 feet (driveway crossing height) off
the ground.
Fed with good coax.
VSWR at rig end of coax is 1.9:1 at 1830 kHz.

The question is whether it is worthwhile to install a ground rod under the
feedpoint and connect the neg side of the balun to the ground rod (or maybe
the shell of the 259 at the bottom of the balun). I'm asking because with
my luck I won't be able to remove the rod once it is in and I cannot
convert this antenna to ground radials because it is close to my driveway.
OK, I could rent/borrow a horizontal boring rig.....

73,
Mark K2QO
K2 #543
FN03ra**
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UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK