Topband: raised radials

[Gary and Kathleen Pearse]

One thing I've wondered: are elevated radials more likely to pickup local QRN than those on the ground, or buried? The on-ground 160M loop antennas I've used for reception seemed quieter here than those that were elevated 15-20'.

Before my 160 tree blew down this Fall and took the Inv-L antenna with it, I could walk around with an AM radio next to the 8 elevated tuned radials (4' at the antenna base angling up to ~15' in the trees) and pick up local hash and some minor AM BCB. Some radials were 'louder' than others, mainly those closest to potential noise sources like the AC power line or the house meter loop. I never tried that with on-ground radials as I had none to compare them with.

The antenna base was ungrounded and fed through a custom wound UN-UN followed by a DXE VFCC-H10-A choke. There was no BCB in the shack end of the coax where I had slipped on 10 Type 31 ferrite beads, but there was still city QRN of course.

73, Gary NL7Y