Topband: raised radials

[Tom W8JI]

> the more i read, it seems raised radials are a fairly easy way to raise 
> the effeciancy of a short vertical.

Only if the original ground system is a meager system with significant loss.

At my QTH on 40 meters, 4 elevated radials at 6 feet above ground were about 
equal to 12-15 radials in the earth. That would be like 4 radials 24 feet 
above earth on 160.

The difference between them was the elevated radials only worked OK on one 
or two bands (like 40 and 15), while the buried wires were reasonably good 
on 160-10 meters, out of view, and protected for lightning.

> i have a hy-gain 18ht with base loading.  can i use these raised radials 
> with this antenna, and if so how to do it.  it is impossible to raise the 
> whole antenna to get the base off the ground.

Since the antenna is an all band antenna, I don't think I would use a 
resonant radial. I'd just bury as many radials as I could as long and 
straight as possible, and enjoy all the bands. If you had 10-20 radials 60 
feet or more long, it would be tough to make any improvement on lower bands.

If you use a resonant radial system, it really should be ground isolated. 
That complicates things.

This 10-20 loss thing, at least to me, appears to be based on anecdotal 
unconfirmed opinions. Like deer whistles on cars.

73 Tom