Topband: Verticals on the beach

[Grant Saviers]

My experience with two elevated resonant radials near (0.1 to 0.2 
wavelengths) the tide line has been very positive during 4 DXpeditions. 
The coverage is almost 180 degrees in the direction of the salt water 
parallel to the tide line. The results are very good for verticals less 
than 0.5 wavelengths from the water and some improvement as far as 1 
wavelength.

There is more data in my QST article of June 2016 "Verticals on the 
Beach — Some Modeling Results".

It's important to remember that while salt water has a huge benefit in 
the far field it is still a lossy medium and as noted has very large 
attenuation with depth.  Copper has 10,000,000 greater conductivity than 
salt water and air is an extremely low loss medium.  So just 2 elevated 
radials "on the beach" are real winners and there should be no ground 
connection or on ground radials.

For top band the radials can be shortened 50% with a single loading coil 
which if well constructed might cause a <db increase in loss while 
achieving a very low angle peak signal with 4 to 5 db of pattern gain.

Grant KZ1W

On 12/29/2022 12:57, Kenny Silverman wrote:
> Stan ZF9CW said:
> 
> For the verticals I have put up on a temporary basis very close to the water, I am pleased with just two elevated radials.  I tried radials on the ground and in the water but as you and others have said, everything changes with the tide and when the waves get big.
> 
> If anyone had a protected area to eliminate the waves and then something that would float with copper sheeting on the bottom, that would be great!  My permanent antenna, a shunt fed tower, is not as close to the water (about 70 feet away)
> 
> 
> Stan, If installing a vertical at
> The waters edge is easy enough, that should be much better than the one 70’ back. With the vertical at the waters edge, you have more directions over salt water
> 
> 
> Regards , Kenny
> _________________
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