Topband: elevated radials question

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I ran a top loaded vertical over elevated radials for about 10 years. I fed the vertical at the level of the radials, around 10 feet. There were eight radials, seven of which were ¼ wavelength and one was considerably shorter, as that property boundary limited me.
I then moved house, and ran the same with 4 x elevated radials for 160 m, and 4 for 80 m.
Well, all I can say is that it worked. I moved my country score to around 140, which is quite an effort for Australia, but I became disillusioned with all the elevated radials cluttering the paddock. Several times one or more either fell down, or I tore them down when I was driving the tractor under them, because a horse had scratched his bum on a support pole and the wire sagged.
So, I resolved to put down a buried radial field, and for the past couple of years, I have 64 x 100 foot long buried radials. Much tidier!
A few points on elevated radials. As mentioned by others, you need to get them up a reasonable height. I had to put mine up clear of horses and vehicles in the paddock.
With four or fewer radials, they are very sensitive with tuning. More than four, and they are less so. Many more than four and you are likely to cause family disharmony.
Buried radials in the long run are tidier, but a lot of work. You can put them down one by one by cutting the turf with a spade and pushing the wire down with a stick. This disturbs the ground less than by trenching. With patience, you’ll get your maximum ground radial field down, and maintain a neat ground surface and family harmony.
And definitely work on arranging a receive antenna.
See you on Top!
73, Luke VK3HJ

Sent from Mail for Windows

From: Greg Davis
Sent: Tuesday, 26 October 2021 3:59 AM
To: topband at contesting.com
Subject: Re: Topband: elevated radials question

Grant and Joel,

Thanks for the feedback.

I have a stockpile of wire that's not doing me any good sitting in my
garage, so it sounds to me like probably the best thing is to add some more
on-ground radials (to some extent) and focus on improving my RX since I do
not yet have a dedicated RX antenna.

73 de Greg N3ZL