Topband: Radials help

[Herb Schoenbohm]

On 2/10/2012 1:11 PM, Milt -- N5IA wrote:
> If that is the case, WHY do the pro broadcasters install all 120 radials at
> full length; even bare wire buried a couple of inches underground?

Answer:

Because the FCC requires it as part of your AM application.  Some 
stations that were required to protect a distant station on the same 
channel but away from the area they wanted to cover, even applied for a 
waivers with a deliberately poor ground system in the protected 
direction ...but the FCC said no way Jose.  Another consulting engineer 
when modeling a slant wire shunt fed and running test FSM noticed some 
cancellation in the opposite direction of the slant wire shunt fed 
tower.  This appeared a sensible solution to enhanced protection without 
the addition of another tower and expensive pahser, not to mention the 
cost of additional real estate.  Again the boys at 1919 M Street said 
no.  (The Portals today)

With the price of copper skyrocketing the amount of theft in some parts 
of the country is unbelievable.  AM stations are immediate targets as 
thieves just pull up the systems with a winch or just hook it to the 
bumper and drive off into seclusion and roll it up in the back of a 
truck. Some station owners in PR have opted to plow in barbed wire as a 
lower cost alternative to bare copper.  So far none of the barbed wire 
buried ground systems have not been touched.


Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ