Topband: Anyone purchased the ARRL book on Short Antennas for160???

[David Raymond]

> "The first permanent use of an elevated radial ground system appears to be
> at WPCI, 1490 kHz in Greenville, South Carolina. This installation, 
> designed by William A. Culpepper, involved replacing a standard buried 
> system with a four wire elevated system consisting of #10 solid copper 
> wire, one quarter wave in length, and supported on treated wooden posts 
> which keep the radials 4.9 meters above ground. The antenna radiation 
> efficiency, based on field strength readings on the eight cardinal 
> radials, was 302 mV/m at 1 kilometer versus the predicted FCC value of 307 
> mV/m. The WPCI installation was unique in that the tower was base 
> insulated but the radials came right up to the tower, 4.9 meters above 
> ground and terminated in insulators. The tower was fed from the tuning 
> unit, through a piece of coax to the 5 meter point on the tower where the 
> center conductor of the coax was attached to the tower and the shield to 
> the elevated radials. This feed system resulted in a higher feed 
> resistance than would normally be expected. Data on this facility was 
> taken from the FCC files."
>

An intriguing paper.  Nice to see something actually based on science and 
true field measurements.  A couple of questions.  With the radials being 4.9 
meters above ground, do the radials literally come up to the tower and then 
travel down the leg to connect to the ground side of the insulator or do 
they travel in close to the tower and angle downward?  Does a FS measurement 
taken at 1 kilometer fully reflect the true angle of radiation and overall 
performance of the antenna for purposes of distant signals?

73. . . Dave
W0FLS