Topband: OT - Bonding Radials at Intersections

[Dennis OConnor]

I had an 80 meter two element parasitic  vertical beam array with elevated radials. The radials were roughly 8 to 10 feet in the air and 8 radials per vertical. They were suspended through the woods by tree branches and installed so there was roughly a foot of vertical clearance between the radials on the driven and the reflector (reversible) where they crossed. 
(In those days I was drinking the Kool AId and believed in quarter wave radials with religious fervor)
The vertical elements were full size and supported by the phillystran guys on a 150 foot tower. It was fed by a Henry Classic amp with a pair of 3-500 tubes and were were running about 1400 watts.It would hit 1800, but with long runs of CQ it would start to smell hot, so we sacrificed a tenth of a dB (the horror, the horror) and backed off 400 watts  
It was CQWW CW and a cold, wild, black, night with a howling wind. Dave went out for a smoke and came running back in."There is fire raining from the sky" he yelled.  "It went down the back of my neck and burned me.""Aww, come on Dave"  I said smugly, not even turning around as I bagged a multiplier on 80. 
"No sheet" he yelled, his eyes still bugging out.
Long story short: WIth the big halogen light we determined it was the radials waving up and down and touching when the wind whipped the tree branches. Next day we got a ladder and looked at the radials, #14 THHN, and the insulation was charred off where they touched and the copper was pitted and melted in spots - with one in particular, almost cut in half.. 
So the voltages 2/3 of the way out on a radial,  at 1400 watts,  are an eye opener.Anyway, the antenna was a pile up buster and worth its weight in gold during a contest - but the constant, never ending, chore of broken tangled wires and tree limbs year around  was its undoing in the end.

denny / k8do