TopBand: Radials

[CQK8DO@aol.com]

<Snip>
Anyway, Tom... the point of this message is to reinforce your findings... I
initially used Moxon's suggestion of a pair of 1/8 wave radials, 6-7 foot
high, with a common inductance to resonate them... this was on a two element
parasitic, leaning array... they did work and for the first time I had a
presence on top band... 
then I replaced them with a pair of 1/4 wave radials (some are bent to avoid
problems)  by extending the existing radials and removing the inductor...
there seemed to be an improvement over the loaded 1/8 waves and we worked a
thousand Q's in a topband contest for the first time... whether this is
entirely due to the radials can be debated, of course...
the array was later expanded to 4 elements, which confounds any direct
comparisons...
 
Since then I have been increasing the number of radials to 4 under each
vertical element of the array )... I feel that I have noted increased
preformance with the increased numbers of radials... The most striking change
has been that the array has become quieter on receive with the increased
radials...Further, most of the radials have been raised to 12-15 feet by
sloping the radial up from the feed point, which is 7 feet above ground... I
have done this by two methods... one is to slope smoothly to 15 feet at the
1/8 wave point and then run parallel to the ground from there.. the other is
to slope up at a 45 degree angle to a support , then run parallel... using
the RF-1 Analyst on these two variations does not show any significant
difference in impedence or tuning length...

Denny   cqk8do@aol.com

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