Topband: elevated radials

[Grant Saviers]

I have a 160m T with 8 elevated 125' radials and the currents are worst 
case 3:1 unequal for various reasons (nearby steel building & towers).  
I've modeled this with EZNEC Pro4 by placing the actual radial currents 
as sources in each radial.  Obviously the sum of those currents must 
equal the vertical current and those measurements agree.

I'm wondering what is your "radials generate unwanted radiation".  The 
modeling shows the pattern is less than 1 db "out of round" with my 
unbalanced currents.

I know there are many comments that radial currents must be equalized.  
My own DXpedition experience with single radial SteppIR CrankIRs and 
modeling them shows only a 2 or 3 of db "out of round".    Some other 
modeling I did showed small pattern skew even with 3 or 4 radials removed.

So what am I missing?

Grant KZ1W

On 10/21/2018 15:22 PM, John Kaufmann wrote:
> We just went through the exercise of tuning up the elevated radials on the
> KC1XX 160m vertical array in advance of the upcoming CQWW DX Contests.
>
> The first thing is to make each of the radials look as electrically
> identical as possible.  We assume the length of the vertical element is
> fixed and not adjustable.  We start by connecting one radial at a time to
> the feedpoint of the vertical and measuring the impedance at the vertical
> feedpoint.  In general the impedances will not be exactly the same.  With
> unequal impedances, the currents flowing in each of the radials will
> generally be unequal, which is undesirable because then the radials generate
> unwanted radiation.   Suppressing that radiation depends on making the
> radial currents as close to equal as possible so that in the far field, the
> radiation from each radial is cancelled by the out-of-phase radiation from
> an opposing radial.  The lengths of each of the radials then need to be
> adjusted to equalize the feedpoint impedances of the vertical with one
> radial at a time.
>
> We trimmed the radial lengths to make the feedpoint reactance X=0 at the
> desired resonant frequency of the vertical.  (Note that if there are other
> vertical elements present in an array, they have to be detuned to insure
> they do not corrupt the measurement.)  However when we did this, we found
> that the resistance (R) at the feedpoint was different with each individual
> radial and it was not possible to equalize the resistances and reactances
> simultaneously.   Apparently this is because of the non-homogeneous
> environment (ground and surrounding trees) around each radial.  So, we do
> the best we can in equalizing the impedances and accept some degree of
> imperfection.  The more radials present around the vertical, the more
> forgiving the system is of imperfections in radial symmetry.
>
> As a final check we then connect all of the radials to the vertical element
> and check the impedance again.  The resonance (where the reactance X=0)
> should be close to the resonance that was obtained in the radial trimming
> exercise for the vertical with one radial at a time.
>
> 73, John W1FV
>
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